Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


o 


WESTWARD    HO! 


•DUX  FCEMINA   FACTI." 

Motto  oftlie  Armada  Medals,  1588. 


Engraved  by  C  H.Jeens.frvina.  Pbz ' . 


WESTWAED  HO! 


OK 


THE  VOYAGES  AND  ADVENTURES  OF 

feiic  &mpa0  Heiglj,  l&ntffljt, 

OF  BURROUGH,  IN  THE  COUNTY  OF  DEVON, 

IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HER  MOST  GLORIOUS  MAJESTY 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH 


RENDERED   INTO   MODERN    ENGLISH 


BY    CHARLES   KINGSLEY 


MACMILLAX    AND   CO. 

AND    NEW    YORK 

1890 


Tlie  Right  of  Translation  and  Reproduction  is  Reserved. 


First  Edition  (3  vols.  Crown  Svo,  31s.  6d.)  February  1855. 

Reprinted  April  1855. 

New  Edition  (1  vol.  Crown  Svo,  7s.  6d.)  1857. 

Reprinted  (6s.)  1861,  1865,  1869,  1871,  1872,  1873,  1874,  1875. 

February  and  November  1876.     March  and  November  1877,  1878. 

February  and  November  1879,  1880. 

Eversley  Edition  (2  vols.  Globe  Svo)  1881. 

New  Edition  (1  vol.  Crown  Svo)  1881. 

Reprinted  1882,  1883,  1884,  1885,  1887. 

New  Edition  (1  vol.  Crown  Svo,  3s.  6d.)  September  1888. 

Reprinted  December  1888,  1889,  1890. 

Sixpenny  Edition  (Medium  Svo)  18S9. 


College 
Library 


881 


THE   EAJAH   SIR  JAMES   BROOKE,  K.C.B. 

AND 

GEORGE  AUGUSTUS   SELWYN,  D.D. 

BISHOP   OF   NEW   ZEALAND 

STf)t0  Book  {0  IBeincatetJ 
BY  ONE  WHO  (UNKNOWN  TO  THEM)  HAS  NO  OTHER  METHOD  OF  EX- 

PRESSING HIS  ADMIRATION  AND  REVERENCE  FOR  THEIR  CHARACTERS. 
THAT  TYPE  OF  ENGLISH  VIRTUE,  AT  ONCE  MANFUL  AND  GODLY, 
PRACTICAL  AND  ENTHUSIASTIC,  PRUDENT  AND  SELF-SACRIFICING, 
WHICH  HE  HAS  TRIED  TO  DEPICT  IN  THESE  PAGES,  THEY  HAVE 
EXHIBITED  IN  A  FORM  EVEN  PURER  AND  MORE  HEROIC  THAN  THAT 
IN  WHICH  HE  HAS  DREST  IT,  AND  THAN  THAT  IN  WHICH  IT  WAS 
EXHIBITED  BY  THE  WORTHIES  WHOM  ELIZABETH,  WITHOUT  DISTINC- 
TION OF  RANK  OR  AGE,  GATHERED  ROUND  HER  IN  THE  EVER 
GLORIOUS  WARS  OF  HER  GREAT  REIGN. 

C.  K. 

February  1856. 


1093531 


CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAOK 

I.    HOW   MR.    OXENHAM   SAW   THE   WHITE   BlRD  .  1 

II.  How  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  THE  FIRST  TIME   .        .        18 

III.  OF  TWO    GENTLEMEN  OF  WALES,  AND  HOW  THEY 

HUNTED   WITH    THE  HOUNDS,  AND    YET   RAN 

WITH  THE  DEER 48 

IV.  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE    .        .  64 
V.  GLOVELLY  COURT  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME  ...  87 

VI.  THE  COOMBES  OF  THE  FAR  WEST  .        .        .        .112 

VII.  THE  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  OF  MR.  JOHN 

OXENHAM  OF  PLYMOUTH 119 

VIII.  How  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS 

FOUNDED 158 

IX.  How  AMYAS  KEPT  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY         .        .  174 
X.  How  THE  MAYOR  OF  BIDEFORD  BAITED  HIS  HOOK 

WITH  HIS  OWN  FLESH 207 

XI.  How  EUSTACE  LEIGH  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE     .  217 

XII.  How  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE  233 

XIII.  How  THE  GOLDEN  HIND  CAME  HOME  AGAIN         .  258 

XIV.  How   SALVATION  YEO  SLEW   THE   KING  OF  THE 

GUBBINGS 266 

XV.  How  MR.  JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  UNDERSTOOD  THE 

NATURE  OF  AN  OATH 289 

XVI.  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE  OF  THE  GOOD 

SHIP  ROSE 299 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  PAOB 

XVII.    HOW   THEY    CAME    TO     BARBADOS,     AND    FOUND    NO 

MEN   THEREIN 315 

XVIII.    HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE   PEARLS  AT  MARGARITA          .  320 

XIX.  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA       ....  331 

XX.  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS    .  354 

XXI.    HOW     THEY     TOOK    THE     COMMUNION     UNDER     THE 

TREE  AT   HlGUEROTE 377 

XXII.  THE  INQUISITION  iv  THE  INDIES    ....  393 

XXIII.  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META 396 

XXIV.  How  AMYAS  WAS  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL     .        .  412 

XXV.    HOW   THEY   TOOK   THE   GOLD-TRAIN             .            .            .  432 

XXVI.    HOW   THEY   TOOK  THE   GREAT   GALLEON              .           .  457 

XXVII.  How   SALVATION  YEO   FOUND   HIS   LITTLE  MAID 

AGAIN 486 

XXVIII.  How  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  THE  THIRD  TIME  .        .  499 
XXIX.  How  THE  VIRGINIA  FLEET  WAS  STOPPED   BY  THE 

QUEEN'S  COMMAND     ......  512 

XXX.  How   THE    ADMIRAL   JOHN   HAWKINS    TESTIFIED 

AGAINST  CROAKERS 536 

XXXI.  THE  GREAT  ARMADA 551 

XXXII.  How  AMYAS  THREW  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA    .  568 

XXXIII.  How  AMYAS  LET  THE  APPLE  FALL                 '.        .  585 


WESTWAED   HO! 

CHAPTER  I. 

HOW  MR.  OXENHAM  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD. 

"  The  hollow  oak  our  palace  is, 
Our  heritage  the  sea. " 

ALL  who  have  travelled  through  the  delicious  scenery  of  North 
Devon  must  needs  know  the  little  white  town  of  Bideford, 
which  slopes  upwards  from  its  broad  tide -river  paved  with 
yellow  sands,  and  many-arched  old  bridge  where  salmon  wait 
for  Autumn  floods,  toward  the  pleasant  upland  on  the  west. 
Above  the  town  the  hills  close  in,  cushioned  with  deep  oak 
woods,  through  which  juts  here  and  there  a  crag  of  fern-fringed 
slate  ;  below  they  lower,  and  open  more  and  more  in  softly- 
rounded  knolls,  and  fertile  squares  of  red  and  green,  till  they 
sink  into  the  wide  expanse  of  hazy  flats,  rich  salt-marshes,  and 
rolling  sand-hills,  where  Torridge  joins  her  sister  Taw,  and 
both  together  flow  quietly  toward  the  broad  surges  of  the  bar, 
and  the  everlasting  thunder  of  the  long  Atlantic  swell.  Plea- 
santly the  old  town  stands  there,  beneath  its  soft  Italian  sky, 
fanned  day  and  night  by  the  fresh  ocean  breeze,  which  forbids 
alike  the  keen  winter  frosts,  and  the  fierce  thunder  heats  of  the 
midland  ;  and  pleasantly  it  has  stood  there  for  now,  perhaps, 
eight  hundred  years  since  the  first  Grenvil,  cousin  of  the  Con- 
queror, returning  from  the  conquest  of  South  Wales,  drew  round 
him  trusty  Saxon  serfs,  and  free  Norse  rovers  with  their  golden 
curls,  and  dark  Silurian  Britons  from  the  Swansea  shore,  and 
all  the  mingled  blood  which  still  gives  to  the  seaward  folk  of 
the  next  county  their  strength  and  intellect,  and,  even  in  these 
levelling  days,  their  peculiar  beauty  of  face  and  form. 

But  at  the  time  whereof  I  write,  Bideford  was  not  merely 
a  pleasant  country  town,  whose  quay  was  haunted  by  a  few 
coasting  craft.     It  was  one  of  the  chief  ports  of  England  ;  it 
52  B 


HOW  MR.  OXENHAM  [CHAP.  i. 

furnished  seven  ships  to  fight  the  Armada :  even  more  than  a 
century  afterwards,  say  the  chroniclers,  "  it  sent  more  vessels 
to  the  northern  trade  than  any  port  in  England,  saving  (strange 
juxtaposition  !)  London  and  Topsham,"  and  was  the  centre  of 
a  local  civilisation  and  enterprise,  small  perhaps  compared  with 
the  vast  efforts  of  the  present  day  :  but  who  dare  despise  the 
day  of  small  things,  if  it  has  proved  to  be  the  dawn  of  mighty 
ones  ?  And  it  is  to  the  sea -life  and  labour  of  Bideford,  and 
Dartmouth,  and  Topsham,  and  Plymouth  (then  a  petty  place), 
and  many  another  little  western  town,  that  England  owes  the 
foundation  of  her  naval  and  commercial  glory.  It  was  the  men 
of  Devon,  the  Drakes  and  Hawkins',  Gilberts  and  Raleighs, 
Grenviles  and  Oxenhams,  and  a  host  more  of  "forgotten 
worthies,"  whom  we  shall  learn  one  day  to  honour  as  they 
deserve,  to  whom  she  owes  her  commerce,  her  colonies,  her  very 
existence.  For  had  they  not  first  crippled,  by  their  West 
Indian  raids,  the  ill-gotten  resources  of  the  Spaniard,  and  then 
crushed  his  last  huge  effort  in  Britain's  Salamis,  the  glorious 
fight  of  1588,  what  had  we  been  by  now,  but  a  Popish  appan- 
age of  a  world-tyranny  as  cruel  as  heathen  Rome  itself,  and  far 
more  devilish  1 

It  is  in  memory  of  these  men,  their  voyages  and  their 
battles,  their  faith  and  their  valour,  their  heroic  lives  and  no 
less  heroic  deaths,  that  I  write  this  book ;  and  if  now  and  then 
I  shall  seem  to  warm  into  a  style  somewhat  too  stilted  and 
pompous,  let  me  be  excused  for  my  subject's  sake,  fit  rather  to 
have  been  sung  than  said,  and  to  have  proclaimed  to  all  true 
English  hearts,  not  as  a  novel  but  as  an  epic  (which  some  man 
may  yet  gird  himself  to  write),  the  same  great  message  which 
the  songs  of  Troy,  and  the  Persian  wars,  and  the  trophies  of 
Marathon  and  Salamis,  spoke  to  the  hearts  of  all  true  Greeks 
of  old. 

One  bright  summer's  afternoon,  in  the  year  of  grace  1575, 
a  tall  and  fair  boy  came  lingering  along  Bideford  quay,  in  his 
scholar's  gown,  with  satchel  and  slate  in  hand,  watching  wist- 
fully the  shipping  and  the  sailors,  till,  just  after  he  had  passed 
the  bottom  of  the  High  Street,  he  came  opposite  to  one  of  the 
many  taverns  which  looked  out  upon  the  river.  In  the  open 
bay  window  sat  merchants  and  gentlemen,  discoursing  over  their 
afternoon's  draught  of  sack  ;  and  outside  the  door  was  gathered 
a  group  of  sailors,  listening  earnestly  to  some  one  who  stood  in 
the  midst.  The  boy,  all  alive  for  any  sea-news,  must  needs  go 


CHAP.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  3 

up  to  them,  and  take  his  place  among  the  sailor-lads  who  were 
peeping  and  whispering  under  the  elbows  of  the  men  ;  and  so 
came  in  for  the  following  speech,  delivered  in  a  loud  bold  voice, 
with  a  strong  Devonshire  accent,  and  a  fair  sprinkling  of  oaths. 

"  If  you  don't  believe  me,  go  and  see,  or  stay  here  and  grow 
all  over  blue  mould.  I  tell  you,  as  I  am  a  gentleman,  I  saw  it 
with  these  eyes,  and  so  did  Salvation  Yeo  there,  through  a 
window  in  the  lower  room  ;  and  we  measured  the  heap,  as  I 
am  a  christened  man,  seventy  foot  long,  ten  foot  broad,  and 
twelve  foot  high,  of  silver  bars,  and  each  bar  between  a  thirty 
and  forty  pound  weight.  And  says  Captain  Drake :  '  There, 
my  lads  of  Devon,  I've  brought  you  to  the  mouth  of  the  world's 
treasure-house,  and  it's  your  own  fault  now  if  you  don't  sweep 
it  out  as  empty  as  a  stock-fish.' " 

"Why  didn't  you  bring  some  of  they  home,  then,  Mr. 
Oxenham  V 

"  Why  weren't  you  there  to  help  to  carry  them  ?  We 
would  have  brought  'em  away,  safe  enough,  and  young  Drake 
and  I  had  broke  the  door  abroad  already,  but  Captain  Drake 
goes  off  in  a  dead  faint ;  and  when  we  came  to  look,  he  had  a 
wound  in  his  leg  you  might  have  laid  three  fingers  in,  and  his 
boots  were  full  of  blood,  and  had  been  for  an  hour  or  more ;  but 
the  heart  of  him  was  that,  that  he  never  knew  it  till  he 
dropped,  and  then  his  brother  and  I  got  him  away  to  the  boats, 
he  kicking  and  struggling,  and  bidding  us  let  him  go  on  with 
the  fight,  though  every  step  he  took  in  the  sand  was  in  a  pool 
of  blood  ;  and  so  we  got  off.  And  tell  me,  ye  sons  of  shotten 
herrings,  wasn't  it  worth  more  to  save  him  than  the  dirty  silver1? 
for  silver  we  can  get  again,  brave  boys :  there's  more  fish  in 
the  sea  than  ever  came  out  of  it,  and  more  silver  in  Nombre 
de  Dios  than  would  pave  all  the  streets  in  the  west  country  : 
but  of  such  captains  as  Franky  Drake,  Heaven  never  makes  but 
one  at  a  time ;  and  if  we  lose  him,  good-bye  to  England's  luck, 
say  I,  and  who  don't  agree,  let  him  choose  his  weapons,  and 
I'm  his  man." 

He  who  delivered  this  harangue  was  a  tall  and  sturdy  per- 
sonage, with  a  florid  black-bearded  face,  and  bold  restless  dark 
eyes,  who  leaned,  with  crossed  legs  and  arms  akimbo,  against 
the  wall  of  the  house;  and  seemed  in  the  eyes  of  the  school-boy 
a  very  magnifico,  some  prince  or  duke  at  least.  He  was  dressed 
(contrary  to  all  sumptuary  laws  of  the  time)  in  a  suit  of  crimson 
velvet,  a  little  the  worse,  perhaps,  for  wear ;  by  his  side  were 
a  long  Spanish  rapier  and  a  brace  of  daggers,  gaudy  enough 


4  HOW  MR.  OXENHAM  [CHAP.  I. 

about  the  hilts ;  his  fingers  sparkled  with  rings ;  he  had  two 
or  three  gold  chains  about  his  neck,  and  large  earrings  in  his 
ears,  behind  one  of  which  a  red  rose  was  stuck  jauntily  enough 
among  the  glossy  black  curls ;  on  his  head  was  a  broad  velvet 
Spanish  hat,  in  which  instead  of  a  feather  was  fastened  with  a 
great  gold  clasp  a  whole  Quezal  bird,  whose  gorgeous  plumage 
of  fretted  golden  green  shone  like  one  entire  precious  stone. 
As  he  finished  his  speech,  he  took  off  the  said  hat,  and  look- 
ing at  the  bird  in  it — 

"  Look  ye,  my  lads,  did  you  ever  see  such  a  fowl  as  that 
before  1  That's  the  bird  which  the  old  Indian  kings  of  Mexico 
let  no  one  wear  but  their  own  selves ;  and  therefore  I  wear  it, — 
I,  John  Oxenham  of  South  Tawton,  for  a  sign  to  all  brave  lads 
of  Devon,  that  as  the  Spaniards  are  the  masters  of  the  Indians, 
we're  the  masters  of  the  Spaniards  :"  and  he  replaced  his  hat. 

A  murmur  of  applause  followed  :  but  one  hinted  that  he 
"doubted  the  Spaniards  were  too  many  for  them." 

"  Too  many?  How  many  men  did  we  take  Nombre  de  Dios 
with?  Seventy -three  were  we,  and  no  more  when  we  sailed  out 
of  Plymouth  Sound ;  and  before  we  saw  the  Spanish  Main,  half 
were  '  gastados/  used  up,  as  the  Dons  say,  with  the  scurvy ;  and 
in  Port  Pheasant  Captain  Rawse  of  Cowes  fell  in  with  us,  and 
that  gave  us  some  thirty  hands  more ;  and  with  that  handful, 
niy  lads,  only  fifty-three  in  all,  we  picked  the  lock  of  the  new 
world  !  And  whom  did  we  lose  but  our  trumpeter,  who  stood 
braying  like  an  ass  in  the  middle  of  the  square,  instead  of  taking 
care  of  his  neck  like  a  Christian  ?  I  tell  you,  those  Spaniards 
are  rank  cowards,  as  all  bullies  are.  They  pray  to  a  woman, 
the  idolatrous  rascals  !  and  no  wonder  they  fight  like  women." 

"  You'm  right,  Captain,"  sang  out  a  tall  gaunt  fellow  who 
stood  close  to  him  ;  "  one  westcouritryman  can  fight  two  easter- 
lings,  and  an  easterling  can  beat  three  Dons  any  day.  Eh  ! 
my  lads  of  Devon  ? 

"  For  0  !  it's  the  herrings  and  the  good  brown  beef, 

And  the  cider  and  the  cream  so  white  ; 
0  !  they  are  the  making  of  the  jolly  Devon  lads, 
For  to  play,  and  eke  to  fight. " 

"Come,"  said  Oxenham,  "come  along!  Who  lists?  who 
lists?  who'll  make  his  fortune? 

"  Oh,  who  will  join,  jolly  mariners  all  ? 

And  who  will  join,  says  he,  0  ! 
To  fill  his  pockets  with  the  good  red  goold, 
By  sailing  on  the  sea,  O  ! " 


r,,A,..  i.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  5 

"Who'll  list?"  cried  the  gaunt  man  again;  "now's  your 
time !  We've  got  forty  men  to  Plymouth  now,  ready  to  sail 
the  minute  we  get  back,  and  we  want  a  dozen  out  of  you  Bide- 
ford  men,  and  just  a  boy  or  two,  and  then  we'm  off  and  away, 
and  make  our  fortunes,  or  go  to  heaven. 

"  Our  bodies  in  the  sea  so  deep, 
Our  souls  in  heaven  to  rest ! 
Where  valiant  seamen,  one  and  all, 
Hereafter  shall  be  blest ! " 

"Now,"  said  Oxenham,  "you  won't  let  the  Plymouth  men 
say  that  the  Bideford  men  daren't  follow  them  ?  North  Devon 
against  South,  it  is.  Who'll  join1?  who'll  join?  It  is  but  a 
step  of  a  way,  after  all,  and  sailing  as  smooth  as  a  duck-pond 
as  soon  as  you're  past  Cape  Finisterre.  I'll  run  a  Clovelly 
herring-boat  there  and  back  for  a  wager  of  twenty  pound,  and 
never  ship  a  bucketful  all  the  way.  Who'll  join  ?  Don't  think 
you're  buying  a  pig  in  a  poke.  I  know  the  road,  and  Salvation 
Yeo,  here,  too,  who  was  the  gunner's  mate,  as  well  as  I  do  the 
narrow  seas,  and  better.  You  ask  him  to  show  you  the  chart 
of  it,  now,  and  see  if  he  don't  tell  you  over  the  ruttier  as  well 
as  Drake  himself." 

On  which  the  gaunt  man  pulled  from  under  his  arm  a  great 
white  buffalo  horn  covered  with  rough  etchings  of  land  and  sea, 
and  held  it  up  to  the  admiring  ring. 

"  See  here,  boys  all,  and  behold  the  pictur  of  the  place, 
dra'ed  out  so  natural  as  ever  was  life.  I  got  mun  from  a  Por- 
tingal,  down  to  the  Azores ;  and  he'd  pricked  mun  out,  and 
pricked  mun  out,  wheresoever  he'd  sailed,  and  whatsoever  he'd 
seen.  Take  mun  in  your  hands  now,  Simon  Evans,  take  mun 
in  your  hands;  look  mun  over,  and  I'll  warrant  you'll  know 
the  way  in  five  minutes  so  well  as  ever  a  shark  in  the  seas." 

And  the  horn  was  passed  from  hand  to  hand ;  while  Oxen- 
ham,  who  saw  that  his  hearers  were  becoming  moved,  called 
through  the  open  window  for  a  great  tankard  of  sack,  and 
passed  that  from  hand  to  hand,  after  the  horn. 

The  school-boy,  who  had  been  devouring  with  eyes  and  ears 
all  which  passed,  and  had  contrived  by  this  time  to  edge  him- 
self into  the  inner  ring,  now  stood  face  to  face  with  the  hero  of 
the  emerald  crest,  and  got  as  many  peeps  as  he  could  at  the 
wonder.  But  when  he  saw  the  sailors,  one  after  another,  hav- 
ing turned  it  over  a  while,  come  forward  and  offer  to  join  Mr. 
Oxenham,  his  soul  burned  within  him  for  a  nearer  view  of  that 
wondrous  horn,  as  magical  in  its  effects  as  that  of  Tristrem,  or 


6  HOW  MR.   OXENHAM  [CHAP.  I. 

the  enchanter's  in  Ariosto ;  and  when  the  group  had  somewhat 
broken  up,  and  Oxenham  was  going  into  the  tavern  with  his 
recruits,  he  asked  boldly  for  a  nearer  sight  of  the  marvel,  which 
was  granted  at  once. 

And  now  to  his  astonished  gaze  displayed  themselves  cities 
and  harbours,  dragons  and  elephants,  whales  which  fought  with 
sharks,  plate  ships  of  Spain,  islands  with  apes  and  palm-trees, 
each  with  its  name  over- written,  and  here  and  there,  "  Here  is 
gold ;"  and  again,  "  Much  gold  and  silver ;"  inserted  most 
probably,  as  the  words  were  in  English,  by  the  hands  of  Mr. 
Oxenham  himself.  Lingeringly  and  longingly  the  boy  turned 
it  round  and  round,  and  thought  the  owner  of  it  more  fortunate 
than  Khan  or  Kaiser.  Oh,  if  he  could  but  possess  that  horn, 
what  needed  he  on  earth  beside  to  make  him  blest ! 

"  I  say,  will  you  sell  this  ?" 

"  Yea,  marry,  or  my  own  soul,  if  I  can  get  the  worth  of  it." 

"  I  want  the  horn, — I  don't  want  your  soul ;  it's  somewhat 
of  a  stale  sole,  for  aught  I  know ;  and  there  are  plenty  of  fresh 
ones  in  the  bay." 

And  therewith,  after  much  fumbling,  he  pulled  out  a  tester 
(the  only  one  he  had),  and  asked  if  that  would  buy  it  ? 

"  That !  no,  nor  twenty  of  them." 

The  boy  thought  over  what  a  good  knight-errant  would  do 
in  such  case,  and  then  answered,  "  Tell  you  what :  I'll  fight 
you  for  it." 

"  Thauk'ee,  sir  !" 

"  Break  the  jackanapes's  head  for  him,  Yeo,"  said  Oxenham. 

"Call  me  jackanapes  again,  and  I  break  yours,  sir."  And 
the  boy  lifted  his  fist  fiercely. 

Oxenham  looked  at  him  a  minute  smilingly.  "  Tut !  tut ! 
my  man,  hit  one  of  your  own  size,  if  you  will,  and  spare  little 
folk  like  me!" 

"  If  I  have  a  boy's  age,  sir,  I  have  a  man's  fist.  I  shall  be 
fifteen  years  old  this  month,  and  know  how  to  answer  any  one 
who  insults  me." 

"  Fifteen,  my  young  cockerel  ?  you  look  liker  twenty,"  said 
Oxenham,  with  an  admiring  glance  at  the  lad's  broad  limbs 
keen  blue  eyes,  curling  golden  locks,  and  round  honest  face. 
"  Fifteen  1  If  I  had  half-a-dozen  such  lads  as  you,  I  would 
make  knights  of  them  before  I  died.  Eh,  Yeo  ?" 

"  He'll  do,"  said  Yeo  ;  "  he  will  make  a  brave  gamecock  in 
a  year  or  two,  if  he  dares  ruffle  up  so  early  at  a  tough  old  hen- 
master  like  the  Captain." 


UHA1-.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  7 

At  which  there  was  a  general  laugh,  in  which  Oxenham 
joined  as  loudly  as  any,  and  then  bade  the  lad  tell  him  why  he 
was  so  keen  after  the  horn. 

"  Because,"  said  he,  looking  up  boldly,  "  I  want  to  go  to  sea. 
I  want  to  see  the  Indies.  I  want  to  fight  the  Spaniards. 
Though  I  am  a  gentleman's  son,  I'd  a  deal  liever  be  a  cabin- 
boy  on  board  your  ship."  And  the  lad,  having  hurried  out  his 
say  fiercely  enough,  dropped  his  head  again. 

"  And  you  shall,"  cried  Oxenham,  with  a  great  oath ;  "  and 
take  a  galloon,  and  dine  off  carbonadoed  Dons.  Whose  son 
are  you,  my  gallant  fellow  ?" 

"  Mr.  Leigh's,  of  Burrough  Court." 

"  Bless  his  soul !  I  know  him  as  well  as  I  do  the  Eddys  tone, 
and  his  kitchen  too.  Who  sups  with  him  to-night?" 

"  Sir  Richard  Grenvil." 

"Dick  Grenvil]  I  did  not  know  he  was  in  town.  Go 
home  and  tell  your  father  John  Oxenhatn  will  come  and  keep 
him  company.  There,  off  with  you !  I'll  make  all  straight 
with  the  good  gentleman,  and  you  shall  have  your  venture 
with  me ;  and  as  for  the  horn,  let  him  have  the  horn,  Yeo, 
and  I'll  give  you  a  noble  for  it." 

"  Not  a  penny,  noble  Captain.  If  young  master  will  take 
a  poor  mariner's  gift,  there  it  is,  for  the  sake  of  his  love  to  the 
calling,  and  Heaven  send  him  luck  therein."  And  the  good 
fellow,  with  the  impulsive  generosity  of  a  true  sailor,  thrust  the 
horn  into  the  boy's  hands,  and  walked  away  to  escape  thanks. 

"And  now,"  quoth  Oxenham,  "my  merry  men  all,  make 
up  your  minds  what  mannered  men  you  be  minded  to  be  before 
you  take  your  bounties.  I  want  none  of  your  rascally  lurching 
longshore  vermin,  who  get  five  pounds  out  of  this  captain,  and 
ten  out  of  that,  and  let  him  sail  without  them  after  all,  while 
they  are  stowed  away  under  women's  mufflers,  and  in  tavern 
cellars.  If  any  man  is  of  that  humour,  he  had  better  to  cut 
himself  up,  and  salt  himself  down  in  a  barrel  for  pork,  before 
he  meets  me  again  ;  for  by  this  light,  let  me  catch  him,  be  it 
seven  years  hence,  and  if  I  do  not  cut  his  throat  upon  the 
streets,  it's  a  pity !  '  But  if  any  man  will  be  true  brother  to 
me,  true  brother  to  him  I'll  be,  come  wreck  or  prize,  storm  or 
calm,  salt  water  or  fresh,  victuals  or  none,  share  and  fare  alike ; 
and  here's  my  hand  upon  it,  for  every  man  and  all !  and  so — 

"  Westward  ho  !  with  a  rumbelow, 

And  hurra  for  the  Spanish  Main,  0  ! " 

After   which  oration   Mr.   Oxenham   swaggered   into   the 


HOW  MR.   OXENHAM  [CHAP.  I. 

tavern,  followed  by  his  new  men ;  and  the  boy  took  his  way 
homewards,  nursing  his  precious  horn,  trembling  between  hope 
and  fear,  and  blushing  with  maidenly  shame,  and  a  half-sense 
of  wrong -doing  at  having  revealed  suddenly  to  a  stranger  the 
darling  wish  which  he  had  hidden  from  his  father  and  mother 
ever  since  he  was  ten  years  old. 

Now  this  young  gentleman,  Amyas  Leigh,  though  come  of 
as  good  blood  as  any  in  Devon,  and  having  lived  all  his  life  in 
what  we  should  even  now  call  the  very  best  society,  and  being 
(on  account  of  the  valour,  courtesy,  and  truly  noble  qualities 
which  he  showed  forth  in  his  most  eventful  life)  chosen  by  me 
as  the  hero  and  centre  of  this  story,  was  not,  saving  for  his 
good  looks,  by  any  means  what  would  be  called  now-a-days  an 
"interesting"  youth,  still  less  a  "highly-educated"  one;  for, 
with  the  exception  of  a  little  Latin,  which  had  been  driven 
into  him  by  repeated  blows,  as  if  it  had  been  a  nail,  he  knew 
no  books  whatsoever,  save  his  Bible,  his  Prayer-book,  the  old 
"  Mort  d' Arthur "  of  Caxton's  edition,  which  lay  in  the  great 
bay  window  in  the  hall,  and  the  translation  of  "  Las  Casas' 
History  of  the  West  Indies,"  which  lay  beside  it,  lately  done 
into  English  under  the  title  of  "  The  Cruelties  of  the  Spaniards." 
He  devoutly  believed  in  fairies,  whom  he  called  pixies ;  and 
held  that  they  changed  babies,  and  made  the  mushroom  rings 
on  the  downs  to  dance  in.  When  he  had  warts  or  burns,  he 
went  to  the  white  witch  at  Northam  to  charm  them  away ;  he 
thought  that  the  sun  moved  round  the  earth,  and  that  the  moon 
had  some  kindred  with  a  Cheshire  cheese.  He  held  that  the 
swallows  slept  all  the  winter  at  the  bottom  of  the  horse-pond  ; 
talked,  like  Raleigh,  Grenvil,  and  other  low  persons,  with  a 
broad  Devonshire  accent ;  and  was  in  many  other  respects  so 
very  ignorant  a  youth,  that  any  pert  monitor  in  a  national 
school  might  have  had  a  hearty  laugh  at  him.  Nevertheless, 
this  ignorant  young  savage,  "  vacant  of  the  glorious  gains  "  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  children's  literature  and  science  made 
easy,  and,  worst  of  all,  of  those  improved  views  of  English  his- 
tory now  current  among  our  railway  essayists,  which  consist  in 
believing  all  persons,  male  and  female,  before  the  year  1688, 
and  nearly  all  after  it,  to  have  been  either  hypocrites  or  fools, 
had  learnt  certain  things  which  he  would  hardly  have  been 
taught  just  now  in  any  school  in  England ;  for  his  training  had 
been  that  of  the  old  Persians,  "  to  speak  the  truth  and  to  draw 
the  bow,"  both  of  which  savage  virtues  he  had  acquired  to 
perfection,  as  well  as  the  equally  savage  ones  of  enduring  pain 


CHAP.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  9 

cheerfully,  and  of  believing  it  to  be  the  finest  thing  in  the  world 
to  be  a  gentleman  ;  by  which  word  he  had  been  taught  to  under- 
stand the  careful  habit  of  causing  needless  pain  to  no  human 
being,  poor  or  rich,  and  of  taking  pride  in  giving  up  his  own 
pleasure  for  the  sake  of  those  who  were  weaker  than  himself. 
Moreover,  having  been  entrusted  for  the  last  year  with  the 
breaking  of  a  colt,  and  the  care  of  a  cast  of  young  hawks  which 
his  father  had  received  from  Lundy  Isle,  he  had  been  profiting 
much,  by  the  means  of  those  coarse  and  frivolous  amusements, 
in  perseverance,  thoughtfulness,  and  the  habit  of  keeping  his 
temper ;  and  though  he  had  never  had  a  single  "object  lesson," 
or  been  taught  to  "  use  his  intellectual  powers,"  he  knew  the 
names  and  ways  of  every  bird,  and  fish,  and  fly,  and  could  read, 
as  cunningly  as  the  oldest  sailor,  the  meaning  of  every  drift  of 
cloud  which  crossed  the  heavens.  Lastly,  he  had  been  for  some 
time  past,  on  account  of  his  extraordinary  size  and  strength,  un- 
disputed cock  of  the  school,  and  the  most  terrible  fighter  among 
all  Bideford  boys ;  in  which  brutal  habit  he  took  much  delight, 
and  contrived,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  to  extract  from  it  good, 
not  only  for  himself  but  for  others,  doing  justice  among  his 
school-fellows  with  a  heavy  hand,  and  succouring  the  oppressed 
and  afflicted ;  so  that  he  was  the  terror  of  all  the  sailor-lads,  and 
the  pride  and  stay  of  all  the  town's  boys  and  girls,  and  hardly  con- 
sidered that  he  had  done  his  duty  in  his  calling  if  he  went  home 
without  beating  a  big  lad  for  bullying  a  little  one.  For  the  rest, 
he  never  thought  about  thinking,  or  felt  about  feeling;  and  had 
no  ambition  whatsoever  beyond  pleasing  his  father  and  mother, 
getting  by  honest  means  the  maximum  of  "  red  quarrenders  " 
and  mazard  cherries,  and  going  to  sea  when  he  was  big  enough. 
Neither  was  he  what  would  be  now-a-days  called  by  many  a 
pious  child ;  for  though  he  said  his  Creed  and  Lord's  Prayer 
night  and  morning,  and  went  to  the  service  at  the  church  every 
forenoon,  and  read  the  day's  Psalms  with  his  mother  every 
evening,  and  had  learnt  from  her  and  from  his  father  (as  he 
proved  well  in  after  life)  that  it  was  infinitely  noble  to  do  right 
and  infinitely  base  to  do  wrong,  yet  (the  age  of  children's  re- 
ligious books  not  having  yet  dawned  on  the  world)  he  knew 
nothing  more  of  theology,  or  of  his  own  soul,  than  is  contained 
in  the  Church  Catechism.  It  is  a  question,  however,  on  the 
whole,  whether,  though  grossly  ignorant  (according  to  our 
modem  notions)  in  science  and  religion,  he  was  altogether 
untrained  in  manhood,  virtue,  and  godliness  :  and  whether  the 
barbaric  narrowness  of  his  Information  was  not  somewhat 


10  HOW  MR.  OXENHAM  [CHAP.  I. 

counterbalanced  both  in  him  and  in  the  rest  of  his  generation 
by  the  depth,  and  breadth,  and  healthiness  of  his  Education. 

So  let  us  watch  him  up  the  hill  as  he  goes  hugging  his 
horn,  to  tell  all  that  has  passed  to  his  mother,  from  whom  he 
had  never  hidden  anything  in  his  life,  save  only  that  sea-fever ; 
and  that  only  because  he  foreknew  that  it  would  give  her  pain ; 
and  because,  moreover,  being  a  prudent  and  sensible  lad,  he 
knew  that  he  was  not  yet  old  enough  to  go,  and  that,  as  he 
expressed  it  to  her  that  afternoon,  "  there  was  no  use  hollaing 
till  he  was  out  of  the  wood." 

So  he  goes  up  between  the  rich  lane -banks,  heavy  with 
drooping  ferns  and  honeysuckle;  out  upon  the  windy  down 
toward  the  old  Court,  nestled  amid  its  ring  of  wind-dipt  oaks  ; 
through  the  grey  gateway  into  the  homeclose ;  and  then  he 
pauses  a  moment  to  look  around ;  first  at  the  wide  bay  to  the 
westward,  with  its  southern  wall  of  purple  cliffs ;  then  at  the 
dim  Isle  of  Lundy  far  away  at  sea ;  then  at  the  cliffs  and 
downs  of  Morte  and  Braunton,  right  in  front  of  him  ;  then  at 
the  vast  yellow  sheet  of  rolling  sand-hill,  and  green  alluvial 
plain  dotted  with  red  cattle,  at  his  feet,  through  which  the 
silver  estuary  winds  onward  toward  the  sea.  Beneath  him,  on 
his  right,  the  Torridge,  like  a  land-locked  lake,  sleeps  broad  and 
bright  between  the  old  park  of  Tapeley  and  the  charmed  rock 
of  the  Hubbastone,  where,  seven  hundred  years  ago,  the  Norse 
rovers  landed  to  lay  siege  to  Kenwith  Castle,  a  mile  away  on  his 
left  hand;  and  not  three  fields  away,  are  the  old  stones  of  "  The 
Bloody  Corner,"  where  the  retreating  Danes,  cut  off  from  their 
ships,  made  their  last  fruitless  stand  against  the  Saxon  sheriff 
and  the  valiant  men  of  Devon.  Within  that  charmed  rock,  so 
Torridge  boatmen  tell,  sleeps  now  the  old  Norse  Viking  in  his 
leaden  coffin,  with  all  his  fairy  treasure  and  his  crown  of  gold ; 
and  as  the  boy  looks  at  the  spot,  he  fancies,  and  almost  hopes, 
that  the  day  may  come  when  he  shall  have  to  do  his  duty 
against  the  invader  as  boldly  as  the  men  of  Devon  did  then. 
And  past  him,  far  below,  upon  the  soft  south-eastern  breeze,  the 
stately  ships  go  sliding  out  to  sea.  When  shall  he  sail  in  them, 
and  see  the  wonders  of  the  deep  ?  And  as  he  stands  there  with 
beating  heart  and  kindling  eye,  the  cool  breeze  whistling 
through  his  long  fair  curls,  he  is  a  symbol,  though  he  knows  it 
not,  of  brave  young  England  longing  to  wing  its  way  out  of  its 
island  prison,  to  discover  and  to  traffic,  to  colonise  and  to 
civilise,  until  no  wind  can  sweep  the  earth  which  does  not  bear 
the  echoes  of  an  English  voice.  Patience,  young  Atnyas ! 


CHAP.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  11 

Thou  too  shalt  forth,  and  westward  ho,  beyond  thy  wildest 
dreams ;  and  see  brave  sights,  and  do  brave  deeds,  which  no 
man  has  since  the  foundation  of  the  world.  Thou  too  shalt 
face  invaders  stronger  and  more  cruel  far  than  Dane  or  Norman, 
and  bear  thy  part  in  that  great  Titan  strife  before  the  renown 
of  which  the  name  of  Salamis  shall  fade  away  ! 

Mr.  Oxenhain  came  that  evening  to  supper  as  he  had  pro- 
mised :  but  as  people  supped  in  those  days  in  much  the  same 
manner  as  they  do  now,  we  may  drop  the  thread  of  the  story  for 
a  few  hours,  and  take  it  up  again  after  supper  is  over. 

"  Come  now,  Dick  Greuvil,  do  thou  talk  the  good  man 
round,  and  I'll  warrant  myself  to  talk  round  the  good  wife." 

The  personage  whom  Oxenham  addressed  thus  familiarly 
answered  by  a  somewhat  sarcastic  smile,  and,  "  Mr.  Oxenhain 
gives  Dick  Grenvil "  (with  just  enough  emphasis  on  the  "  Mr." 
and  the  "Dick,"  to  hint  that  a  liberty  had  been  taken  with 
him)  "  overmuch  credit  with  the  men.  Mr.  Oxenham's  credit 
with  fair  ladies,  none  can  doubt.  Friend  Leigh,  is  Heard's 
great  ship  home  yet  from  the  Straits  ?" 

The  speaker,  known  well  in  those  days  as  Sir  Richard 
Grenvile,  Granville,  Greenvil,  Greenfield,  with  two  or  three 
other  variations,  was  one  of  those  truly  heroical  personages 
whom  Providence,  fitting  always  the  men  to  their  age  and  their 
work,  had  sent  upon  the  earth  whereof  it  takes  right  good  care, 
not  in  England  only,  but  in  Spain  and  Italy,  in  Germany  and 
the  Netherlands,  and  wherever,  in  short,  great  men  and  great 
deeds  were  needed  to  lift  the  mediaeval  world  into  the  modern. 

And,  among  all  the  heroic  faces  which  the  painters  of  that 
age  have  preserved,  none,  perhaps,  hardly  excepting  Shaks- 
peare's  or  Spenser's,  Alva's  or  Parma's,  is  more  heroic  than  that 
of  Richard  Grenvil,  as  it  stands  in  Prince's  "  Worthies  of 
Devon ;"  of  a  Spanish  type,  perhaps  (or  more  truly  speaking,  a 
Cornish),  rather  than  an  English,  with  just  enough  of  the 
British  element  In  it  to  give  delicacy  to  its  massiveness.  The 
forehead  and  whole  brain  are  of  extraordinary  loftiness,  and 
perfectly  upright ;  the  nose  long,  aquiline,  and  delicately 
pointed ;  the  mouth  fringed  with  a  short  silky  beard,  small  and 
ripe,  yet  firm  as  granite,  with  just  pout  enough  of  the  lower 
lip  to  give  hint  of'  that  capacity  of  noble  indignation  which  lay 
hid  under  its  usual  courtly  calm  and  sweetness  ;  if  there  be  a 
defect  in  the  face,  it  is  that  the  eyes  are  somewhat  small,  and 
close  together,  and  the  eyebrows,  though  delicately  arched,  and, 
without  a  trace  of  peevishness,  too  closely  pressed  down  upon 


12  HOW  MR.  OXENHAM  [CHAP.  i. 

them,  the  complexion  is  dark,  the  figure  tall  and  graceful ; 
altogether  the  likeness  of  a  wise  and  gallant  gentleman,  lovely 
to  all  good  men,  awful  to  all  bad  men  ;  in  whose  presence  none 
dare  say  or  do  a  mean  or  a  ribald  thing;  whom  brave  men  left, 
feeling  themselves  nerved  to  do  their  duty  better,  while  cowards 
slipped  away,  as  bats  and  owls  before  the  sun.  So  he  lived  and 
moved,  whether  in  the  Court  of  Elizabeth,  giving  his  counsel 
among  the  wisest ;  or  in  the  streets  of  Bideford,  capped  alike 
by  squire  and  merchant,  shopkeeper  and  sailor  ;  or  riding  along 
the  moorland  roads  between  his  houses  of  Stow  and  Bideford, 
while  every  woman  ran  out  to  her  door  to  look  at  the  great  Sir 
Richard,  the  pride  of  North  Devon ;  or,  sitting  there  in  the  low 
mullioned  window  at  Burrough,  with  his  cup  of  malmsey  before 
him,  and  the  lute  to  which  he  had  just  been  singing  laid  across 
his  knees,  while  the  red  western  sun  streamed  in  upon  his 
high,  bland  forehead,  and  soft  curling  locks;  ever  the  same 
steadfast,  God-fearing,  chivalrous  man,  conscious  (as  far  as  a 
soul  so  healthy  could  be  conscious)  of  the  pride  of  beauty,  and 
strength,  and  valour,  and  wisdom,  and  a  race  and  name  which 
claimed  direct  descent  from  the  grandfather  of  the  Conqueror, 
and  was  tracked  down  the  centuries  by  valiant  deeds  and  noble 
benefits  to  his  native  shire,  himself  the  noblest  of  his  race. 
Men  said  that  he  was  proud  :  but  he  could  not  look  round  him 
without  having  something  to  be  proud  of;  that  he  was  stern 
and  harsh  to  his  sailors  :  but  it  was  only  when  he  saw  in  them 
any  taint  of  cowardice  or  falsehood ;  that  he  was  subject,  at 
moments,  to  such  fearful  fits  of  rage,  that  he  had  been  seen  to 
snatch  the  glasses  from  the  table,  grind  them  to  pieces  in  his 
teeth,  and  swallow  them  :  but  that  was  only  when  his  indigna- 
tion had  been  aroused  by  some  tale  of  cruelty  or  oppression ; 
and,  above  all,  by  those  West  Indian  devilries  of  the  Spaniards, 
whom  he  regarded  (and  in  those  days  rightly  enough)  as  the 
enemies  of  God  and  man.  Of  this  last  fact  Oxenham  was  well 
aware,  and  therefore  felt  somewhat  puzzled  and  nettled,  when, 
after  having  asked  Mr.  Leigh's  leave  to  take  young  Amyas 
with  him,  and  set  forth  in  glowing  colours  the  purpose  of  his 
voyage,  he  found  Sir  Richard  utterly  unwilling  to  help  him  with 
his  suit. 

"  Heyday,  Sir  Richard  !  You  are  not  surely  gone  over  to 
the  side  of  those  canting  fellows  (Spanish  Jesuits  in  disguise, 
every  one  of  them,  they  are),  who  pretended  to  turn  up  their 
noses  at  Franky  Drake  as  a  pirate,  and  be  hanged  to  them  1 " 

"  My  friend  Oxenham,"  answered  he,  in  the  sententious  and 


CHAP.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  13 

measured  style  of  the  day,  "  I  have  always  held,  as  you  should 
know  by  this,  that  Mr.  Drake's  booty,  as  well  as  my  good 
friend  Captain  Hawkins's,  is  lawful  prize,  as  being  taken  from  the 
Spaniard,  who  is  not  only  '  hostis  humani  generis,'  but  has  no 
right  to  the  same,  having  robbed  it  violently,  by  torture  and 
extreme  iniquity,  from  the  poor  Indian,  whom  God  avenge,  as 
He  surely  will." 

"  Amen,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"  I  say  Amen  too,"  quoth  Oxenham,  "  especially  if  it  please 
Him  to  avenge  them  by  English  haads." 

"And  I  also,"  went  on  Sir  Richard;  "for  the  rightful 
owners  of  the  said  goods  being  either  miserably  dead,  or  incap- 
able by  reason  of  their  servitude,  of  ever  recovering  any  share 
thereof,  the  treasure,  falsely  called  Spanish,  cannot  be  better 
bestowed  than  in  building  up  the  state  of  England  against  them, 
our  natural  enemies ;  and  thereby,  in  building  up  the  weal  of 
the  Reformed  Churches  throughout  the  world,  and  the  liberties 
of  all  nations,  against  a  tyranny  more  foul  and  rapacious  than 
that  of  Nero  or  Caligula ;  which,  if  it  be  not  the  cause  of  God, 
I,  for  one,  know  not  what  God's  cause  is !  "  And,  as  he 
warmed  in  his  speech,  his  eyes  flashed  very  fire. 

"  Hark  now  ! "  said  Oxenham,  "  who  can  speak  more  boldly 
than  he  ?  and  yet  he  will  not  help  this  lad  to  so  noble  an 
adventure." 

"  You  have  asked  his  father  and  mother ;  what  is  their 
answer  ? " 

"  Mine  is  this,"  said  Mr.  Leigh  ;  "  if  it  be  God's  will  that 
my  boy  should  become,  hereafter,  such  a  mariner  as  Sir  Richard 
Grenvil,  let  him  go,  and  God  be  with  him ;  but  let  him  first 
bide  here  at  home  and  be  trained,  if  God  give  me  grace,  to 
become  such  a  gentleman  as  Sir  Richard  Grenvil." 

Sir  Richard  bowed  low,  and  Mrs.  Leigh  catching  up  the 
last  word — 

"  There,  Mr.  Oxenham,  you  cannot  gainsay  that,  unless  you 
will  be  discourteous  to  his  worship.  And  for  me — though  it 
be  a  weak  woman's  reason,  yet  it  is  a  mother's  :  he  is  my  only 
child.  His  elder  brother  is  far  away.  God  only  knows 
whether  I  shall  see  him  again  •  and  what  are  all  reports  of  his 
virtues  and  his  learning  to  me,  compared  to  that  sweet  presence 
which  I  daily  miss  ?  Ah  !  Mr.  Oxenham,  my  beautiful  Joseph 
is  gone  ;  and  though  he  be  lord  of  Pharaoh's  household,  yet  he  is 
fur  away  in  Egypt ;  and  you  will  take  Benjamin  also  !  Ah  !  Mr. 
Oxenham,  you  have  no  child,  or  you  would  not  ask  for  mine  ! " 


14  HOW  MR.   OXENHAM  [CHAP.  I. 

"  And  how  do  you  know  that,  my  sweet  Madam  ? "  said  the 
adventurer,  turning  first  deadly  pale,  and  then  glowing  red. 
Her  last  words  had  touched  him  to  the  quick  in  some  unexpected 
place ;  and  rising,  he  courteously  laid  her  hand  to  his  lips,  and 
said — "  I  say  no  more.  Farewell,  sweet  Madam,  and  God  send 
all  men  such  wives  as  you." 

"And  all  wives,"  said  she,  smiling,  "such  husbands  as 
mine." 

"  Nay,  I  will  not  say  that,"  answered  he,  with  a  half  sneer 
— and  then,  "Farewell,  friend  Leigh — farewell,  gallant  Dick 
Grenvil.  God  send  I  see  thee  Lord  High  Admiral  when  I  come 
home.  And  yet,  why  should  I  come  home  ?  Will  you  pray  for 
poor  Jack,  gentles  ] " 

"  Tut,  tut,  man  !  good  words,"  said  Leigh ;  "  let  us  drink 
to  our  merry  meeting  before  you  go."  And  rising,  and  putting 
the  tankard  of  malmsey  to  his  lips,  he  passed  it  to  Sir  Richard, 
who  rose,  and  saying,  "  To  the  fortune  of  a  bold  mariner  and  a 
gallant  gentleman,"  drank,  and  put  the  cup  into  Oxenham's 
hand. 

The  adventurer's  face  was  flushed,  and  his  eye  wild. 
Whether  from  the  liquor  he  had  drunk  during  the  day,  or 
whether  from  Mrs.  Leigh's  last  speech,  he  had  not  been  himself 
for  a  few  minutes.  He  lifted  the  cup,  and  was  in  act  to  pledge 
them,  when  he  suddenly  dropped  it  on  the  table,  and  pointed, 
staring  and  trembling,  up  and  down,  and  round  the  room,  as  if 
following  some  fluttering  object. 

u  There  !  Do  you  see  it  ?  The  bird  ! — the  bird  with  the 
white  breast ! " 

Each  looked  at  the  other;  but  Leigh,  who  was  a  quick- 
witted man,  and  an  old  courtier,  forced  a  laugh  instantly,  and 
cried — 

"  Nonsense,  brave  Jack  Oxenham  !  Leave  white  birds  for 
men  who  will  show  the  white  feather.  Mrs.  Leigh  waits  to 
pledge  you." 

Oxenham  recovered  himself  in  a  moment,  pledged  them  all 
round,  drinking  deep  and  fiercely;  and  after  hearty  farewells, 
departed,  never  hinting  again  at  his  strange  exclamation. 

After  he  was  gone,  and  while  Leigh  was  attending  him  to 
the  door,  Mrs.  Leigh  and  Grenvil  kept  a  few  minutes'  dead 
silence.  At  last — 

"  God  help  him  ! "  said  she. 

"  Amen  ! "  said  Grenvil,  "  for  he  never  needed  it  more.  But, 
indeed,  Madam,  I  put  no  faith  in  such  omens." 


CHAP.  I.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  J5 

"  But,  Sir  Richard,  that  bird  has  been  seen  for  generations 
before  the  death  of  any  of  his  family.  I  know  those  who  were 
at  South  Tawton  when  his  mother  died,  and  his  brother  also ; 
and  they  both  saw  it.  God  help  him  !  for,  after  all,  he  is  a 
proper  man." 

"  So  many  a  lady  has  thought  before  now,  Mrs.  Leigh,  and 
well  for  him  if  they  had  not.  But,  indeed,  I  make  no  account 
of  omens.  When  God  is  ready  for  each  man,  then  he  must  go  ; 
and  when  can  he  go  better  ? " 

"  But,"  said  Mr.  Leigh,  who  entered,  "  I  have  seen,  and 
especially  when  I  was  in  Italy,  omens  and  prophecies  before 
now  beget  their  own  fulfilment,  by  driving  men  into  reckless- 
ness, and  making  them  run  headlong  upon  that  very  ruin 
which,  as  they  fancied,  was  running  upon  them." 

"And  which,"  said  Sir  Richard,  "they  might  have  avoided, 
if,  instead  of  trusting  in  I  know  not  what  dumb  and  dark 
destiny,  they  had  trusted  in  the  living  God,  by  faith  in  whom 
men  may  remove  mountains,  and  quench  the  fire,  and  put  to 
flight  the  armies  of  the  alien.  I  too  know,  and  know  not 
how  I  know,  that  I  shall  never  die  in  my  bed." 

"  God  forfend  ! "  cried  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"And  why,  fair  Madam,  if  I  die  doing  my  duty  to  my  God 
and  niy  queen  ?  The  thought  never  moves  .me :  nay,  to  tell 
the  truth,  I  pray  often  enough  that  I  may  be  spared  the 
miseries  of  imbecile  old  age,  and  that  end  which  the  old  North- 
men rightly  called  '  a  cow's  death '  rather  than  a  man's.  But 
enough  of  this.  Mr.  Leigh,  you  have  done  wisely  to-night. 
Poor  Oxenham  does  not  go  on  his  voyage  with  a  single  eye.  I 
have  talked  about  him  with  Drake  and  Hawkins ;  and  I  guess 
why  Mrs.  Leigh  touched  him  so  home  when  she  told  him  that 
he  had  no  child." 

"  Has  he  one,  then,  in  the  West  Indies  1 "  cried  the  good 
lady. 

"  God  knows ;  and  God  grant  we  may  not  hear  of  shame 
and  sorrow  fallen  upon  an  ancient  and  honourable  house  of 
Devon.  My  brother  Stukely  is  woe  enough  to  North  Devon 
for  this  generation." 

"  Poor  braggadocio  ! "  said  Mr.  Leigh  ;  "  and  yet  not  alto- 
gether that  too,  for  he  can  fight  at  least." 

"  So  can  every  mastiff  and  boar,  much  more  an  Englishman. 
And  now  come  hither  to  me,  my  adventurous  godson,  and  don't 
look  in  such  doleful  dumps.  I  hear  you  have  broken  all  the 
sailor-boys'  heads  already." 


16  HOW  MR.   OXENHAM  [CHAP.  i. 

"  Nearly  all,"  said  young  Amyas,  with  due  modesty.  "  But 
am  I  not  to  go  to  sea  1 " 

"  All  things  in  their  time,  my  boy,  and  God  forbid  that 
either  I  or  your  worthy  parents  should  keep  you  from  that 
noble  calling  which  is  the  safeguard  of  this  England  and  her 
queen.  But  you  do  not  wish  to  live  and  die  the  master  of  a 
trawler?" 

"  I  should  like  to  be  a  brave  adventurer,  like  Mr.  Oxenham." 

"  God  grant  you  become  a  braver  man  than  he !  for  as  I 
think,  to  be  bold  against  the  enemy  is  common  to  the  brutes  ; 
but  the  prerogative  of  a  man  is  to  be  bold  against  himself." 

"  How,  sir  1 " 

"  To  conquer  our  own  fancies,  Amyas,  and  our  own  lusts, 
and  our  ambition,  in  the  sacred  name  of  duty ;  this  it  is  to  be 
truly  brave,  and  truly  strong  ;  for  he  who  cannot  rule  himself, 
how  can  he  rule  his  crew  or  his  fortunes  1  Come,  now,  I  will 
make  you  a  promise.  If  you  will  bide  quietly  at  home,  and 
learn  from  your  father  and  mother  all  which  befits  a  gentleman 
and  a  Christian,  as  well  as  a  seaman,  the  day  shall  come  when 
you  shall  sail  with  Richard  Grenvil  himself,  or  with  better  men 
than  he,  on  a  nobler  errand  than  gold-hunting  on  the  Spanish 
Main." 

"  0  my  boy,  my  boy  !"  said  Mrs.  Leigh,  "  hear  what  the 
good  Sir  Richard  promises  you.  Many  an  earl's  son  would  be 
glad  to  be  in  your  place." 

"  And  many  an  earl's  son  will  be  glad  to  be  in  his  place  a 
score  years  hence,  if  he  will  but  learn  what  I  know  you  two 
can  teach  him.  And  now,  Amyas,  my  lad,  I  will  tell  you  for 
a  warning  the  history  of  that  Sir  Thomas  Stukely  of  whom  I 
spoke  just  now,  and  who  was,  as  all  men  know,  a  gallant  and 
courtly  knight,  of  an  ancient  and  worshipful  family  in  Ilfra- 
combe,  well  practised  in  the  wars,  and  well  beloved  at  first  by 
our  incomparable  queen,  the  friend  of  all  true  virtue,  as  I 
trust  she  will  be  of  yours  some  day ;  who  wanted  but  one  step 
to  greatness,  and  that  was  this,  that  in  his  hurry  to  rule  all 
the  world,  he  forgot  to  rule  himself.  At  first,  he  wasted  his 
estate  in  show  and  luxury,  always  intending  to  be  famous,  and 
destroying  his  own  fame  all  the  while  by  his  vainglory  and 
haste.  Then,  to  retrieve  his  losses,  he  hit  upon  the  peopling 
of  Florida,  which  thou  and  I  will  see  done  some  day,  by  God's 
blessing ;  for  I  and  some  good  friends  of  mine  have  an  errand 
there  as  well  as  he.  But  he  did  not  go  about  it  as  a  loyal 
man,  to  advance  the  honour  of  his  queen,  but  his  own  honour 


(MAP.  i.]  SAW  THE  WHITE  BIRD.  17 

only,  dreaming  that  he  too  should  be  a  king;  and  was  not 
ashamed  to  tell  her  majesty  that  he  had  rather  be  sovereign  of 
a  molehill  than  the  highest  subject  of  an  emperor." 

"  They  say,"  said  Mr.  Leigh,  "  that  he  told  her  plainly  he 
should  be  a  prince  before  he  died,  and  that  she  gave  him  one 
of  her  pretty  quips  in  return." 

"  I  don't  know  that  her  majesty  had  the  best  of  it.  A  fool 
is  many  times  too  strong  for  a  wise  man,  by  virtue  of  his  thick 
hide.  For  when  she  said  that  she  hoped  she  should  hear  from 
him  in  his  new  principality,  '  Yes,  sooth,'  says  he,  graciously 
enough.  '  And  in  what  style  V  asks  she.  '  To  our  dear  sister,' 
says  Stukely  :  to  which  her  clemency  had  nothing  to  reply,  but 
turned  away,  as  Mr.  Burleigh  told  me,  laughing." 

"  Alas  for  him  !"  said  gentle  Mrs.  Leigh.  "  Such  self-con- 
ceit— and  Heaven  knows  we  have  the  root  of  it  in  ourselves 
also — is  the  very  daughter  of  self-will,  and  of  that  loud  crying 
out  about  I,  and  me,  and  mine,  which  is  the  very  bird-call  for 
all  devils,  and  the  broad  road  which  leads  to  death." 

"  It  will  lead  him  to  his,"  said  Sir  Richard ;  "  God  grant  it 
be  not  upon  Tower-hill !  for  since  that  Florida  plot,  and  after 
that  his  hopes  of  Irish  preferment  came  to  nought,  he  who 
could  not  help  himself  by  fair  means  has  taken  to  foul  ones, 
and  gone  over  to  Italy  to  the  Pope,  whose  infallibility  has  not 
been  proof  against  Stukely's  wit ;  for  he  was  soon  his  Holiness's 
closet  counsellor,  and,  they  say,  his  bosom  friend ;  and  made 
him  give  credit  to  his  boasts  that,  with  three  thousand  soldiers 
he  would  beat  the  English  out  of  Ireland,  and  make  the  Pope's 
son  king  of  it." 

"Ay,  but,"  said  Mr.  Leigh,  "I  suppose  the  Italians  have 
the  same  fetch  now  as  they  had  when  I  was  there,  to  explain 
such  ugly  cases ;  namely,  that  the  Pope  is  infallible  only  in 
doctrine,  and  quoad  Pope  ;  while  quoad  hominem,  he  is  even  as 
others,  or  indeed,  in  general,  a  deal  worse,  so  that  the  office, 
and  not  the  man,  may  be  glorified  thereby.  But  where  is 
Stukely  now  1" 

"  At  Rome  when  last  I  heard  of  him,  ruffling  it  up  and  down 
the  Vatican  as  Baron  Ross,  Viscount  Murrough,  Earl  Wexford, 
Marquis  Leinster,  and  a  title  or  two  more,  which  have  cost  the 
Pope  little,  seeing  that  they  never  were  his  to  give ;  and  plot- 
ting, they  say,  some  hare-brained  expedition  against  Ireland  by 
the  help  of  the  Spanish  king,  which  must  end  in  nothing  but 
his  shame  and  ruin.  And  now,  my  sweet  hosts,  I  must  call  for 
serving-boy  and  lantern,  and  home  to  my  bed  in  Bideford." 


18  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

And  so  Amyas  Leigh  went  back  to  school,  and  Mr.  Oxen- 
ham  went  his  way  to  Plymouth  again,  and  sailed  for  the 
Spanish  Main. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  THE  FIRST  TIME. 

"Si  taceant  homines,  facient  te  sidera  notum, 
Sol  nescit  comitis  immemor  esse  sui." 

Old  Epigram  on  Drake. 

FIVE  years  are  past  and  gone.  It  is  nine  of  the  clock  on  a  still, 
bright  November  morning  ;  but  the  bells  of  Bideford  church  are 
still  ringing  for  the  daily  service  two  hours  after  the  usual  time ; 
and  instead  of  going  soberly  according  to  wont,  cannot  help 
breaking  forth  every  five  minutes  into  a  jocund  peal,  and 
tumbling  head  over  heels  in  ecstasies  of  joy.  Bideford  streets 
are  a  very  flower-garden  of  all  the  colours,  swarming  with  sea- 
men and  burghers,  and  burghers'  wives  and  daughters,  all  in 
their  holiday  attire.  Garlands  are  hung  across  the  streets,  and 
tapestries  from  every  window.  The  ships  in  the  pool  are 
dressed  in  all  their  flags,  and  give  tumultuous  vent  to  their 
feelings  by  peals  of  ordnance  of  every  size.  Every  stable  is 
crammed  with  horses  ;  and  Sir  Richard  Grenvil's  house  is  like 
a  very  tavern,  with  eating  and  drinking,  and  unsaddling,  and 
running  to  and  fro  of  grooms  and  serving-men.  Along  the 
little  churchyard,  packed  full  with  women,  streams  all  the  gentle 
blood  of  North  Devon, — tall  and  stately  men,  and  fair  ladies, 
worthy  of  the  days  when  the  gentry  of  England  were  by  due 
right  the  leaders  of  the  people,  by  personal  prowess  and  beauty, 
as  well  as  by  intellect  and  education.  And  first,  there  is  my 
lady  Countess  of  Bath,  whom  Sir  Richard  Grenvil  is  escorting, 
cap  in  hand  (for  her  good  Earl  Bourchier  is  in  London  with 
the  queen) ;  and  there  are  Bassets  from  beautiful  Umberleigh, 
and  Carys  from  more  beautiful  Clovelly,  and  Fortescues  of 
Wear,  and  Fortescues  of  Buckland,  and  Fortescues  from  all 
quarters,  and  Coles  from  Slade,  and  Stukelys  from  AfFton,  and 
St.  Legers  from  Annery,  and  Coffins  from  Portledge,  and  even 
Coplestones  from  Eggesford,  thirty  miles  away :  and  last,  but 
not  least  (for  almost  all  stop  to  give  them  place),  Sir  John 
Chichester  of  Ralegh,  followed  in  single  file,  after  the  good  old 
patriarchal  fashion,  by  his  eight  daughters,  and  three  of  his 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  19 

five  famous  sons  (one,  to  avenge  his  murdered  brother,  is 
fighting  valiantly  in  Ireland,  hereafter  to  rule  there  wisely  also, 
as  Lord  Deputy  and  Baron  of  Belfast) ;  and  he  meets  at  the 
gate  his  cousin  of  Arlington,  and  behind  him  a  train  of  four 
daughters  and  nineteen  sons,  the  last  of  whom  has  not  yet 
passed  the  Town-hall,  while  the  first  is  at  the  Lychgate,  who, 
laughing,  make  way  for  the  elder  though  shorter  branch  of  that 
most  fruitful  tree ;  and  so  on  into  the  church,  where  all  are 
placed  according  to  their  degrees,  or  at  least  as  near  as  may 
be,  not  without  a  few  sour  looks,  and  shovings,  and  whisperings, 
from  one  high-born  matron  and  another ;  till  the  churchwardens 
and  sidesmen,  who  never  had  before  so  goodly  a  company  to 
arrange,  have  bustled  themselves  hot,  and  red,  and  frantic,  and 
end  by  imploring  abjectly  the  help  of  the  great  Sir  Richard 
himself  to  tell  them  who  everybody  is,  and  which  is  the  elder 
branch,  and  which  is  the  younger,  and  who  carries  eight 
quarterings  in  their  arms,  and  who  only  four,  and  so  prevent 
their  setting  at  deadly  feud  half  the  fine  ladies  of  North 
Devon ;  for  the  old  men  are  all  safe  packed  away  in  the  cor- 
poration pews,  and  the  young  ones  care  only  to  get  a  place 
whence  they  may  eye  the  ladies.  And  at  last  there  is  a  silence, 
and  a  looking  toward  the  door,  and  then  distant  music,  flutes 
and  hautboys,  drums  and  trumpets,  which  come  braying,  and 
screaming,  and  thundering  merrily  up  to  the  very  church  doors, 
and  then  cease ;  and  the  churchwardens  and  sidesmen  bustle 
down  to  the  entrance,  rods  in  hand,  and  there  is  a  general 
whisper  and  rustle,  not  without  glad  tears  and  blessings  from 
many  a  woman,  and  from  some  men  also,  as  the  wonder  of  the 
day  enters,  and  the  rector  begins,  not  the  morning  service,  but 
the  good  old  thanksgiving  after  a  victory  at  sea. 

And  what  is  it  which  has  thus  sent  old  Bideford  wild 
with  that  "goodly  joy  and  pious  mirth,"  of  which  we  now  only 
retain  traditions  in  our  translation  of  the  Psalms  ?  Why  are 
all  eyes  fixed,  with  greedy  admiration,  on  those  four  weather- 
beaten  mariners,  decked  out  with  knots  and  ribbons  by  loving 
hands ;  and  yet  more  on  that  gigantic  figure  who  walks  before 
them,  a  beardless  boy,  and  yet  with  the  frame  and  stature  of 
a  Hercules,  towering,  like  Saul  of  old,  a  head  and  shoulders 
above  all  the  congregation,  with  his  golden  locks  flowing  down 
over  his  shoulders  ?  And  why,  as  the  five  go  instinctively  up 
to  the  altar,  and  there  fall  on  their  knees  before  the  rails,  are 
all  eyes  turned  to  the  pew  where  Mrs.  Leigh  of  Burrough  has 
hid  her  face  between  her  hands,  and  her  hood  rustles  and 


20  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

shakes  to  her  joyful  sobs  ?  Because  there  was  fellow-feeling  of 
old  in  merry  England,  in  county  and  in  town ;  and  these  are 
Devon  men,  and  men  of  Bideford,  whose  names  are  Amyas 
Leigh  of  Burrough,  John  Staveley,  Michael  Heard,  and  Jonas 
Marshall  of  Bideford,  and  Thomas  Braund  of  Clovelly :  and 
they,  the  first  of  all  English  mariners,  have  sailed  round  the 
world  with  Francis  Drake,  and  are  come  hither  to  give  God 
thanks. 

It  is  a  long  story.  To  explain  how  it  happened  we  must 
go  back  for  a  page  or  two,  almost  to  the  point  from  whence  we 
started  in  the  last  chapter. 

For  somewhat  more  than  a  twelvemonth  after  Mr.  Oxen- 
ham's  departure,  young  Amyas  had  gone  on  quietly  enough, 
according  to  promise,  with  the  exception  of  certain  occasional 
outbursts  of  fierceness  common  to  all  young  male  animals,  and 
especially  to  boys  of  any  strength  of  character.  His  scholar- 
ship, indeed,  progressed  no  better  than  before ;  but  his  home 
education  went  on  healthily  enough ;  and  he  was  fast  becoming, 
young  as  he  was,  a  right  good  archer,  and  rider,  and  swords- 
man (after  the  old  school  of  buckler  practice),  when  his  father, 
having  gone  down  on  business  to  the  Exeter  Assizes,  caught 
(as  was  too  common  in  those  days)  the  gaol-fever  from  the 
prisoners;  sickened  in  the  very  court;  and  died  within  a  week. 

And  now  Mrs.  Leigh  was  left  to  God  and  her  own  soul, 
with  this  young  lion-cub  in  leash,  to  tame  and  train  for  this 
life  and  the  life  to  come.  She  had  loved  her  husband  fervently 
and  holily.  He  had  been  often  peevish,  often  melancholy  ;  for 
he  was  a  disappointed  man,  with  an  estate  impoverished  by  his 
father's  folly,  and  his  own  youthful  ambition,  which  had  led 
him  up  to  Court,  and  made  him  waste  his  heart  and  his  purse 
in  following  a  vain  shadow.  He  was  one  of  those  men,  more- 
over, who  possess  almost  every  gift  except  the  gift  of  the  power 
to  use  them ;  and  though  a  scholar,  a  courtier,  and  a  soldier, 
he  had  found  himself,  when  he  was  past  forty,  without  settled 
employment  or  aim  in  life,  by  reason  of  a  certain  shyness,  pride, 
or  delicate  honour  (call  it  which  you  will),  which  had  always 
kept  him  from  playing  a  winning  game  in  that  very  world  after 
whose  prizes  he  hankered  to  the  last,  and  on  which  he  revenged 
himself  by  continual  grumbling.  At  last,  by  his  good  luck, 
he  met  with  a  fair  young  Miss  Foljambe,  of  Derbyshire,  then 
about  Queen  Elizabeth's  Court,  who  was  as  tired  as  he  of  the 
sins  of  the  world,  though  she  had  seen  less  of  them ;  and  the  two 
contrived  to  please  each  other  so  well,  that  though  the  queen 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  21 

grumbled  a  little,  as  usual,  at  the  lady  for  marrying,  and  at 
the  gentleman  for  adoring  any  one  but  her  royal  self,  they  got 
leave  to  vanish  from  the  little  Babylon  at  Whitehall,  and  settle 
in  peace  at  Burrough.  In  her  he  found  a  treasure,  and  he  knew 
what  he  had  found. 

Mrs.  Leigh  was,  and  had  been  from  her  youth,  one  of  those 
noble  old  English  churchwomen,  without  superstition,  and  with- 
out severity,  who  are  among  the  fairest  features  of  that  heroic 
time.  There  was  a  certain  melancholy  about  her,  nevertheless ; 
for  the  recollections  of  her  childhood  carried  her  back  to  times 
when  it  was  an  awful  thing  to  be  a  Protestant.  She  could 
remember  among  them,  five-and-twenty  years  ago,  the  burning 
of  poor  blind  Joan  Waste  at  Derby,  and  of  Mistress  Joyce 
Lewis,  too,  like  herself,  a  lady  born  ;  and  sometimes  even  now, 
in  her  nightly  dreams,  rang  in  her  ears  her  mother's  bitter  cries 
to  God,  either  to  spare  her  that  fiery  torment,  or  to  give  her 
strength  to  bear  it,  as  she  whom  she  loved  had  borne  it  before 
her.  For  her  mother,  who  was  of  a  good  family  in  Yorkshire, 
had  been  one  of  Queen  Catherine's  bedchamber  women,  and 
the  bosom  friend  and  disciple  of  Anne  Askew.  And  she  had 
sat  in  Smithfield,  with  blood  curdled  by  horror,  to  see  the  hap- 
less Court  beauty,  a  month  before  the  paragon  of  Henry's  Court, 
carried  in  a  chair  (so  crippled  was  she  by  the  rack)  to  her  fiery 
doom  at  the  stake,  beside  her  fellow  -  courtier,  Mr.  Lascelles, 
while  the  very  heavens  seemed  to  the  shuddering  mob  around 
to  speak  their  wrath  and  grief  in  solemn  thunder  peals,  and 
heavy  drops  which  hissed  upon  the  crackling  pile. 

Therefore  a  sadness  hung  upon  her  all  her  life,  and  deepened 
in  the  days  of  Queen  Mary,  when,  as  a  notorious  Protestant 
and  heretic  she  had  had  to  hide  for  her  life  among  the  hills 
and  caverns  of  the  Peak,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  love  which 
her  husband's  tenants  bore  her,  and  by  his  bold  declaration 
that,  good  Catholic  as  he  was,  he  would  run  through  the  body 
any  constable,  justice,  or  priest,  yea,  bishop  or  cardinal,  who 
dared  to  serve  the  Queen's  warrant  upon  his  wife. 

So  she  escaped :  but,  as  I  said,  a  sadness  hung  upon  her 
all  her  life ;  and  the  skirt  of  that  dark  mantle  fell  upon  the 
young  girl  who  had  been  the  partner  of  her  wanderings  and 
hidings  among  the  lonely  hills  ;  and  who,  after  she  was  married, 
gave  herself  utterly  up  to  God. 

And  yet  in  giving  herself  to  God,  Mrs.  Leigh  gave  herself 
to  her  husband,  her  children,  and  the  poor  of  Northara  town, 
and  was  none  the  less  welcome  to  the  Grenviles,  and  Fortescues, 


22  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

and  Chichesters,  and  all  the  gentle  families  round,  who  honoured 
her  husband's  talents,  and  enjoyed  his  wit.  She  accustomed 
herself  to  austerities,  which  often  called  forth  the  kindly  rebukes 
of  her  husband;  and  yet  she  did  so  without  one  superstitious 
thought  of  appeasing  the  fancied  wrath  of  God,  or  of  giving 
Him  pleasure  (base  thought)  by  any  pain  of  hers  ;  for  her  spirit 
had  been  trained  in  the  freest  and  loftiest  doctrines  of  Luther's 
school;  and  that  little  mystic  " Alt-Deutsch  Theologie"  (to 
which  the  great  Reformer  said  that  he  owed  more  than  to  any 
book,  save  the  Bible,  and  St.  Augustine)  was  her  counsellor 
and  comforter  by  day  and  night. 

And  now,  at  little  past  forty,  she  was  left  a  widow :  lovely 
still  in  face  and  figure ;  and  still  more  lovely  from  the  divine 
calm  which  brooded,  like  the  dove  of  peace  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  (which  indeed  it  was),  over  every  look,  and  word,  and 
gesture ;  a  sweetness  which  had  been  ripened  by  storm,  as  well 
as  by  sunshine;  which  this  world  had  not  given,  and  could 
not  take  away.  No  wonder  that  Sir  Richard  and  Lady  Gren- 
vile  loved  her ;  no  wonder  that  her  children  worshipped  her ; 
no  wonder  that  the  young  Amyas,  when  the  first  burst  of  grief 
was  over,  and  he  knew  again  where  he  stood,  felt  that  a  new 
life  had  begun  for  him ;  that  his  mother  was  no  more  to  think 
and  act  for  him  only,  but  that  he  must  think  and  act  for  his 
mother.  And  so  it  was,  that  on  the  very  day  after  his  father's 
funeral,  when  school-hours  were  over,  instead  of  coming  straight 
home,  he  walked  boldly  into  Sir  Richard  Grenvile's  house,  and 
asked  to  see  his  godfather. 

"  You  must  be  my  father  now,  sir,"  said  he  firmly. 

And  Sir  Richard  looked  at  the  boy's  broad  strong  face, 
and  swore  a  great  and  holy  oath,  like  Glasgerion's,  "  by  oak, 
and  ash,  and  thorn,"  that  he  would  be  a  father  to  him,  and  a 
brother  to  his  mother,  for  Christ's  sake.  And  Lady  Grenvile 
took  the  boy  by  the  hand,  and  walked  home  with  him  to  Bur- 
rough  ;  and  there  the  two  fair  women  fell  on  each  other's 
necks,  and  wept  together ;  the  one  for  the  loss  which  had 
been,  the  other,  as  by  a  prophetic  instinct,  for  the  like  loss 
which  was  to  come  to  her  also.  For  the  sweet  St.  Leger 
knew  well  that  her  husband's  fiery  spirit  would  never  leave 
his  body  on  a  peaceful  bed ;  but  that  death  (as  he  prayed 
almost  nightly  that  it  might)  would  find  him  sword  in  hand, 
upon  the  field  of  duty  and  of  fame.  And  there  those  two  vowed 
everlasting  sisterhood,  and  kept  their  vow ;  and  after  that  all 
things  went  on  at  Burrough  as  before ;  and  Amyas  rode,  and 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  23 

aliot,  and  boxed,  and  wandered  on  the  quay  at  Sir  Richard's 
side  ;  for  Mrs.  Leigh  was  too  wise  a  woman  to  alter  one  tittle 
of  the  training  which  her  husband  had  thought  best  for  his 
younger  boy.  It  was  enough  that  her  elder  son  had  of  his  own 
accord  taken  to  that  form  of  life  in  which  she  in  her  secret 
heart  would  fain  have  moulded  both  her  children.  For  Frank, 
God's  wedding  gift  to  that  pure  love  of  hers,  had  won  himself 
honour  at  home  and  abroad  ;  first  at  the  school  at  Bideford  ; 
then  at  Exeter  College,  where  he  had  become  a  friend  of  Sir 
Philip  Sidney's,  and  many  another  young  man  of  rank  and  pro- 
mise ;  and  next,  in  the  summer  of  1572,  on  his  way  to  the 
University  of  Heidelberg,  he  had  gone  to  Paris,  with  (luckily 
for  him)  letters  of  recommendation  to  Walsingham,  at  the 
English  Embassy  :  by  which  letters  he  not  only  fell  in  a  second 
time  with  Philip  Sidney,  but  saved  his  own  life  (as  Sidney  did 
his)  in  the  Massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew's  Day.  At  Heidel- 
berg he  had  stayed  two  years,  winning  fresh  honour  from  all 
who  knew  him,  and  resisting  all  Sidney's  entreaties  to  follow 
him  into  Italy.  For,  scorning  to  be  a  burden  to  his  parents, 
he  had  become  at  Heidelberg  tutor  to  two  young  German 
princes,  whom,  after  living  with  them  at  their  father's  house 
for  a  year  or  more,  he  at  last,  to  his  own  great  delight,  took 
with  him  down  to  Padua,  "  to  perfect  them,"  as  he  wrote  home, 
"  according  to  his  insufficiency,  in  all  princely  studies."  Sidney 
was  now  returned  to  England  ;  but  Frank  found  friends  enough 
without  him,  such  letters  of  recommendation  and  diplomas  did 
he  carry  from  I  know  not  how  many  princes,  magnificoes,  and 
learned  doctors,  who  had  fallen  in  love  with  the  learning, 
modesty,  and  virtue  of  the  fair  young  Englishman.  And  ere 
Frank  returned  to  Germany  he  had  satiated  his  soul  with  all 
the  wonders  of  that  wondrous  land.  He  had  talked  over  the 
art  of  sonneteering  with  Tasso,  the  art  of  history  with  Sarpi ; 
he  had  listened,  between  awe  and  incredulity,  to  the  daring 
theories  of  Galileo ;  he  had  taken  his  pupils  to  Venice,  that 
their  portraits  might  be  painted  by  Paul  Veronese ;  he  had 
seen  the  palaces  of  Palladio,  and  the  Merchant  Princes  on  the 
Rialto,  and  the  Argosies  of  Ragusa,  and  all  the  wonders  of 
that  meeting-point  of  east  and  west ;  he  had  watched  Tintor- 
etto's mighty  hand  "hurling  tempestuous  glories  o'er  the 
scene ;"  and  even,  by  dint  of  private  intercession  in  high 
places,  had  been  admitted  to  that  sacred  room  where,  with 
long  silver  beard  and  undimmed  eye,  amid  a  pantheon  of  his 
own  creations,  the  ancient  Titian,  patriarch  of  art,  still  lingered 


24  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

upon  earth,  and  told  old  tales  of  the  Bellinis,  and  Raffaelle,  and 
Michael  Augelo,  and  the  building  of  St.  Peter's,  and  the  fire  at 
Venice,  and  the  Sack  of  Rome,  and  of  kings  and  warriors, 
statesmen  and  poets,  long  since  gone  to  their  account,  and 
showed  the  sacred  brush  which  Francis  the  First  had  stooped 
to  pick  up  for  him.  And  (licence  forbidden  to  Sidney  by  his 
friend  Languet)  he  had  been  to  Rome,  and  seen  (much  to  the 
scandal  of  good  Protestants  at  home)  that  "  right  good  fellow," 
as  Sidney  calls  him,  who  had  not  yet  eaten  himself  to  death, 
the  Pope  for  the  time  being.  And  he  had  seen  the  frescoes  of 
the  Vatican,  and  heard  Palestrina  preside  as  chapel-master  over 
the  performance  of  his  own  music  beneath  the  dome  of  St. 
Peter's,  and  fallen  half  in  love  with  those  luscious  strains,  till 
he  was  awakened  from  his  dream  by  the  recollection  that 
beneath  that  same  dome  had  gone  up  thanksgivings  to  the  God 
of  heaven  for  those  blood-stained  streets,  and  shrieking  women, 
and  heaps  of  insulted  corpses,  which  he  had  beheld  in  Paris  on 
the  night  of  St.  Bartholomew.  At  last,  a  few  months  before 
his  father  died,  he  had  taken  back  his  pupils  to  their  home  in 
Germany,  from  whence  he  was  dismissed,  as  he  wrote,  with 
rich  gifts;  and  then  Mrs.  Leigh's  heart  beat  high,  at  the 
thought  that  the  wanderer  would  return  :  but,  alas  !  within  a 
month  after  his  father's  death,  came  a  long  letter  from  Frank, 
describing  the  Alps,  and  the  valleys  of  the  Waldenses  (with 
whose  Barbes  he  had  had  much  talk  about  the  late  horrible 
persecutions),  and  setting  forth  how  at  Padua  he  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  that  illustrious  scholar  and  light  of  the  age, 
Stephanus  Parmenius  (commonly  called  from  his  native  place, 
Budseus),  who  had  visited  Geneva  with  him,  and  heard  the 
disputations  of  their  most  learned  doctors,  which  both  he  and 
Budseus  disliked  for  their  hard  judgments  both  of  God  and 
man,  as  much  as  they  admired  them  for  their  subtlety,  being 
themselves,  as  became  Italian  students,  Platonists  of  the  school 
of  Ficinus  and  Picus  Mirandolensis.  So  wrote  Master  Frank, 
in  a  long  sententious  letter,  full  of  Latin  quotations :  but  the 
letter  never  reached  the  eyes  of  him  for  whose  delight  it  had 
been  penned  :  and  the  widow  had  to  weep  over  it  alone,  and  to 
weep  more  bitterly  than  ever  at  the  conclusion,  in  which,  with 
many  excuses,  Frank  said  that  he  had,  at  the  special  entreaty 
of  the  said  Budseus,  set  out  with  him  down  the  Danube  stream 
to  Buda,  that  he  might,  before  finishing  his  travels,  make 
experience  of  that  learning  for  which  the  Hungarians  were 
famous  throughout  Europe.  And  after  that,  though  he  wrote 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  25 

again  and  again  to  the  father  whom  he  fancied  living,  no  letter 
in  return  reached  him  from  home  for  nearly  two  years ;  till,  fear- 
ing some  mishap,  he  hurried  back  to  England,  to  find  his  mother 
a  widow,  and  his  brother  Amyas  gone  to  the  South  Seas  with 
Captain  Drake  of  Plymouth.  And  yet,  even  then,  after  years 
of  absence,  he  was  not  allowed  to  remain  at  home.  For  Sir 
Richard,  to  whom  idleness  was  a  thing  horrible  and  unrighteous, 
would  have  him  up  and  doing  again  before  six  months  were 
over,  and  sent  him  off  to  Court  to  Lord  Hunsdon. 

There,  being  as  delicately  beautiful  as  his  brother  was 
huge  and  strong,  he  had  speedily,  by  Carew's  interest  and  that 
of  Sidney  and  his  Uncle  Leicester,  found  entrance  into  some 
office  in  the  Queen's  household  ;  and  he  was  now  basking  in 
the  full  sunshine  of  Court  favour,  and  fair  ladies'  eyes,  and  all 
the  chivalries  and  euphuisms  of  Gloriana's  fairy-land,  and  the 
fast  friendship  of  that  bright  meteor  Sidney,  who  had  returned 
with  honour  in  1577,  from  the  delicate  mission  on  behalf  of 
the  German  and  Belgian  Protestants,  on  which  he  had  been 
sent  to  the  Court  of  Vienna,  under  colour  of  condoling  with 
the  new  Emperor  Rodolph  on  his  father's  death.  Frank  found 
him  when  he  himself  came  to  Court  in  1579  as  lovely  and 
loving  as  ever ;  and,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-five,  acknow- 
ledged as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  Europe,  the  patron 
of  all  men  of  letters,  the  counsellor  of  warriors  and  statesmen, 
and  the  confidant  and  advocate  of  William  of  Orange,  Languet, 
Plessis  du  Mornay,  and  all  the  Protestant  leaders  on  the  Con- 
tinent ;  and  found,  moreover,  that  the  son  of  the  poor  Devon 
squire  was  as  welcome  as  ever  to  the  friendship  of  nature's  and 
fortune's  most  favoured,  yet  most  unspoilt,  minion. 

Poor  Mrs.  Leigh,  as  one  who  had  long  since  learned  to  have 
no  self,  and  to  live  not  only  for  her  children,  but  in  them,  sub- 
mitted without  a  murmur,  and  only  said,  smiling,  to  her  stern 
friend — "  You  took  away  my  mastiff-pup,  and  now  you  must 
needs  have  my  fair  greyhound  also." 

"  Would  you  have  your  fair  greyhound,  dear  lady,  grow  up 
a  tall  and  true  Cotswold  dog,  that  can  pull  down  a  stack  of 
ten,  or  one  of  those  smooth-skinned  poppets  which  the  Florence 
ladies  lead  about  with  a  ring  of  bells  round  its  neck,  and  a 
Ihuinel  farthingale  over  its  loins?" 

Mrs.  Leigh  submitted ;  and  was  rewarded  after  a  few 
months  by  a  letter,  sent  through  Sir  Richard,  from  none  other 
than  Gloriana  herself,  in  which  she  thanked  her  for  "  the  loan 
of  that  most  delicate  and  flawless  crystal,  the  soul  of  her 


26  HOW  AMY  AS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  IL 

excellent  son,"  with  more  praises  of  him  than  I  have  room  to 
insert,  and  finished  by  exalting  the  poor  mother  above  the 
famed  Cornelia;  "for  those  sons,  whom  she  called  her  jewels, 
she  only  showed,  yet  kept  them  to  herself:  but  you,  madam, 
having  two  as  precious,  I  doubt  not,  as  were  ever  that  Roman 
dame's,  have,  beyond  her  courage,  lent  them  both  to  your  coun- 
try and  to  your  queen,  who  therein  holds  herself  indebted  to 
you  for  that  which,  if  God  give  her  grace,  she  will  repay  as 
becomes  both  her  and  you."  Which  epistle  the  sweet  mother 
bedewed  with  holy  tears,  and  laid  by  in  the  cedar-box  which 
held  her  household  gods,  by  the  side  of  Frank's  innumerable 
diplomas  and  letters  of  recommendation,  the  Latin  whereof  she 
was  always  spelling  over  (although  she  understood  not  a  word 
of  it),  in  hopes  of  finding,  here  and  there,  that  precious 
excellentissimus  Noster  Francisciis  Leighius  Anglus,  which  was 
all  in  all  to  the  mother's  heart. 

But  why  did  Amyas  go  to  the  South  Seas  ?  Amyas 
went  to  the  South  Seas  for  two  causes,  each  of  which  has, 
before  now,  sent  many  a  lad  to  far  worse  places  :  first,  because 
of  an  old  schoolmaster ;  secondly,  because  of  a  young  beauty. 
I  will  take  them  in  order  and  explain. 

Vindex  Brimblecombe,  whilom  servitor  of  Exeter  College, 
Oxford  (commonly  called  Sir  Vindex,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
times),  was,  in  those  days,  master  of  the  grammar-school  of 
Bideford.  He  was,  at  root,  a  godly  and  kind-hearted  pedant 
enough ;  but,  like  most  schoolmasters  in  the  old  flogging  days, 
had  his  heart  pretty  well  hardened  by  long,  baneful  licence  to 
inflict  pain  at  will  on  those  weaker  than  himself;  a  power 
healthful  enough  for  the  victim  (for,  doubtless,  flogging  is  the 
best  of  all  punishments,  being  not  only  the  shortest,  but  also  a 
mere  bodily  and  animal,  and  not,  like  most  of  our  new-fangled 
"  humane "  punishments,  a  spiritual  and  fiendish  torture),  but 
for  the  executioner  pretty  certain  to  eradicate,  from  all  but  the 
noblest  spirits,  every  trace  of  chivalry  and  tenderness  for  the 
weak,'  as  well,  often,  as  all  self-control  and  command  of  temper. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  oM  Sir  Vindex  had  heart  enough  to  feel  that 
it  was  now  his  duty  to  take  especial  care  of  the  fatherless  boy 
to  whom  he  tried  to  teach  his  qui,  quce,  quod:  but  the  only 
outcome  of  that  new  sense  of  responsibility  was  a  rapid  increase 
in  the  number  of  floggings,  which  rose  from  about  two  a  week 
to  one  per  diem,  not  without  consequences  to  the  pedagogue 
himself. 

For  all  this  while,  Amyas  had  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight 


CHAP,  n.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  27 

of  his  darling  desire  for  a  sea -life ;  and  when  he  could  not 
wander  on  the  quay  and  stare  at  the  shipping,  or  go  down  to 
the  pebble-ridge  at  Northam,  and  there  sit,  devouring,  with 
hungry  eyes,  the  great  expanse  of  ocean,  which  seemed  to  woo 
him  outward  into  boundless  space,  he  used  to  console  himself,  in 
school-hours,  by  drawing  ships  and  imaginary  charts  upon  his 
slate,  instead  of  minding  his  "  humanities." 

Now  it  befell,  upon  an  afternoon,  that  he  was  very  busy  at 
a  map,  or  bird's-eye  view  of  an  island,  whereon  was  a  great  castle, 
and  at  the  gate  thereof  a  dragon,  terrible  to  see  ;  while,  in  the 
foreground  came  that  which  was  meant  for  a  gallant  ship, 
with  a  great  flag  aloft,  but  which,  by  reason  of  the  forest  of 
lances  with  which  it  was  crowded,  looked  much  more  like  a 
porcupine  carrying  a  sign -post ;  and,  at  the  roots  of  those 
lances,  many  little  round  o's,  whereby  were  signified  the  heads 
of  Amyas  and  his  schoolfellows,  who  were  about  to  slay  that 
dragon,  and  rescue  the  beautiful  princess  who  dwelt  in  that 
enchanted  tower.  To  behold  which  marvel  of  art,  all  the  other 
boys  at  the  same  desk  must  needs  club  their  heads  together, 
and  with  the  more  security,  because  Sir  Vindex,  as  was  his 
custom  after  dinner,  was  lying  back  in  his  chair,  and  slept  the 
sleep  of  the  just. 

But  when  Amyas,  by  special  instigation  of  the  evil  spirit 
who  haunts  successful  artists,  proceeded  further  to  introduce, 
heedless  of  perspective,  a  rock,  on  which  stood  the  lively  por- 
traiture of  Sir  Vindex — nose,  spectacles,  gown,  and  all ;  and  in 
his  hand  a  brandished  rod,  while  out  of  his  mouth  a  label 
shrieked  after  the  runaways,  "  You  come  back ! "  while  a 
similar  label  replied  from  the  gallant  bark,  "Good-bye,  master!" 
the  shoving  and  tittering  rose  to  such  a  pitch,  that  Cerberus 
awoke,  and  demanded  sternly  what  the  noise  was  about.  To 
which,  of  course,  there  was  no  answer. 

"  You,  of  course,  Leigh  !  Come  up,  sir,  and  show  me  your 
exercitation." 

Now  of  Amyas's  exercitation  not  a  word  was  written  ;  and, 
moreover,  he  was  in  the  very  article  of  putting  the  last  touches 
to  Mr.  Brimblecombe's  portrait.  Whereon,  to  the  astonishment 
of  all  hearers,  he  made  answer — 

"  All  in  good  time,  sir  ! "  and  went  on  drawing. 

"  In  good  time,  sir  !     Insolent,  veni  et  vapula  !  " 

But  Amyas  went  on  drawing. 

"  Come  hither,  sirrah,  or  I'll  flay  you  alive  !" 

"  Wait  a  bit ! "  answered  Amyas. 


28  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

The  old  gentleman  jumped  up,  ferula  in  hand,  and  darted 
across  the  school,  and  saw  himself  upon  the  fatal  slate. 

"  Proh  flagitium  !  what  have  we  here,  villain  ?"  and  clutch- 
ing at  his  victim,  he  raised  the  cane.  Whereupon,  with  a  serene 
and  cheerful  countenance,  up  rose  the  mighty  form  of  Amyas 
Leigh,  a  head  and  shoulders  above  his  tormentor,  and  that  slate 
descended  on  the  bald  coxcomb  of  Sir  Vindex  Brimblecombe, 
with  so  shrewd  a  blow,  that  slate  and  pate  cracked  at  the  same 
instant,  and  the  poor  pedagogue  dropped  to  the  floor,  and  lay 
for  dead. 

After  which  Amyas  arose,  and  walked  out  of  the  school, 
and  so  quietly  home ;  and  having  taken  counsel  with  himself, 
went  to  his  mother,  and  said,  "Please,  mother,  I've  broken 
schoolmaster's  head." 

"Broken  his  head,  thou  wicked  boy!"  shrieked  the  poor 
widow;  "what  didst  do  that  for1?" 

"  I  can't  tell,"  said  Amyas  penitently  ;  "I  couldn't  help  it. 
It  looked  so  smooth,  and  bald,  and  round,  and — you  know?" 

"  I  know  ?  Oh,  wicked  boy  !  thou  hast  given  place  to  the 
devil ;  and  now,  perhaps,  thou  hast  killed  him." 

"Killed  the  devil1?"  asked  Amyas,  hopefully  but  doubtfully. 

"  No,  killed  the  schoolmaster,  sirrah  !     Is  he  dead  ?" 

"  I  don't  think  he's  dead ;  his  coxcomb  sounded  too  hard 
for  that.  But  had  not  I  better  go  and  tell  Sir  Richard  V 

The  poor  mother  could  hardly  help  laughing,  in  spite  of  her 
terror,  at  Amyas's  perfect  coolness  (which  was  not  in  the  least 
meant  for  insolence),  and  being  at  her  wits'  end,  sent  him,  as 
usual  to  his  godfather. 

Amyas  rehearsed  his  story  again,  with  pretty  nearly  the 
same  exclamations,  to  which  he  gave  pretty  nearly  the  same 
answers  ;  and  then — 

"  What  was  he  going  to  do  to  you,  then,  sirrah  ]" 

"  Flog  me,  because  I  could  not  write  my  exercise,  and  so 
drew  a  picture  of  him  instead." 

"  What  !  art  afraid  of  being  flogged  ?" 

"  Not  a  bit ;  besides,  I'm  too  much  accustomed  to  it ;  but 
I  was  busy,  and  he  was  in  such  a  desperate  hurry ;  and,  oh,  sir, 
if  you  had  but  seen  his  bald  head,  you  would  have  broken  it 
yourself ! " 

Now  Sir  Richard  had,  twenty  years  ago.  in  like  place,  and 
very  much  in  like  manner,  broken  the  head  of  Vindex  Brimble- 
combe's  father,  schoolmaster  in  his  day ;  and  therefore  had  a 
precedent  to  direct  him ;  and  he  answered — 


OHAP.  n.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  29 

"  Amyas,  sirrah  !  those  who  cunnot  obey  will  never  be  fit 
to  rule.  If  thou  canst  not  keep  discipline  now,  thou  wilt  never 
make  a  company  or  a  crew  keep  it  when  thou  art  grown.  Dost 
in i IK!  that,  sirrah  1" 

"Yes,"  said  Amyas. 

"  Then  go  back  to  school  this  moment,  sir,  and  be  flogged." 

"  Very  well,"  said  Amyas,  considering  that  he  had  got  off 
very  cheaply ;  while  Sir  Richard,  as  soon  as  he  was  out  of  the 
room,  lay  back  in  his  chair,  and  laughed  till  he  cried  again. 

So  Amyas  went  back,  and  said  that  he  was  come  to  be 
flogged;  whereon  the  old  schoolmaster,  whose  pate  had  been 
plastered  meanwhile,  wept  tears  of  joy  over  the  returning  prodi- 
gal, and  then  gave  him  such  a  switching  as  he  did  not  forget 
for  eight-and -forty  hours. 

But  that  evening  Sir  Richard  sent  for  old  Vindex,  who 
entered,  trembling,  cap  in  hand ;  and  having  primed  him  with 
a  cup  of  sack,  said, — 

"  Well,  Mr.  Schoolmaster  !  My  godson  has  been  somewhat 
too  much  for  you  to-day.  There  are  a  couple  of  nobles  to  pay 
the  doctor." 

"  0  Sir  Richard,  gr alias  tibi  et  Domino  !  but  the  boy  hits 
shrewdly  hard.  Nevertheless  I  have  repaid  him  in  inverse  kind, 
'  and  set  him  an  imposition,  to  learn  me  one  of  Phsedrus  his  fables, 
Sir  Richard,  if  you  do  not  think  it  too  much." 

"  Which,  then  1  The  one  about  the  man  who  brought  up  a 
lion's  cub,  and  was  eaten  by  him  in  play  at  last?" 

"Ah,  Sir  Richard!  you  have  always  a  merry  wit.  But, 
indeed,  the  boy  is  a  brave  boy,  and  a  quick  boy,  Sir  Richard, 
but  more  forgetful  than  Lethe  ;  and — sapienti  loquor — it  were 
well  if  he  were  away,  for  I  shall  never  see  him  again  without 
my  head  aching.  Moreover,  he  put  my  son  Jack  upon  the  fire 
last  Wednesday,  as  you  would  put  a  football,  though  he  is  a 
year  older,  your  worship,  because,  he  said,  he  looked  so  like  a 
roasting  pig,  Sir  Richard." 

"Alas,  poor  Jack  !" 

"  And  what's  more,  your  worship,  he  is  pugnax,  bellicosus, 
gladiator,  a  fire-eater  and  swash-buckler,  beyond  all  Christian 
measure ;  a  very  sucking  Entellus,  Sir  Richard,  and  will  do  to 
death  some  of  her  majesty's  lieges  ere  long,  if  he  be  not  wisely 
curbed.  It  was  but  a  month  agone  that  he  bemoaned  himself, 
I  hear,  as  Alexander  did,  because  there  were  no  more  worlds  to 
conquer,  saying  that  it  was  a  pity  he  was  so  strong ;  for,  now  he 
had  thrashed  all  the  Bideford  lads,  he  had  no  sport  left ;  and 


30  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

so,  as  my  Jack  tells  me,  last  Tuesday  week  he  fell  upon  a 
young  man  of  Barnstaple,  Sir  Richard,  a  hosier's  man,  sir,  and 
plebeius  (which  I  consider  unfit  for  one  of  his  blood),  and, 
moreover,  a  man  full  grown,  and  as  big  as  either  of  us  (Vindex 
stood  five  feet  four  in  his  high-heeled  shoes),  and  smote  him 
clean  over  the  quay  into  the  mud,  because  he  said  that  there 
was  a  prettier  maid  in  Barnstaple  (your  worship  Avill  forgive 
my  speaking  of  such  toys,  to  which  my  fidelity  compels  me) 
than  ever  Bideford  could  show;  and  then  offered  to  do  the 
same  to  any  man  who  dare  say  that  Mistress  Rose  Salterne, 
his  Worship  the  Mayor's  daughter,  was  not  the  fairest  lass  in 
all  Devon." 

"  Eh  ?  Say  that  over  again,  my  good  sir,"  quoth  Sir 
Richard,  who  had  thus  arrived,  as  we  have  seen,  at  the  second 
count  of  the  indictment.  "  I  say,  good  sir,  whence  dost  thou 
hear  all  these  pretty  stories  1 " 

"  My  son  Jack,  Sir  Richard,  my  son  Jack,  ingemii  vultiis 
puer." 

"  But  not,  it  seems,  ingenui  pudoris.  Tell  thee  what,  Mr. 
Schoolmaster,  no  wonder  if  thy  son  gets  put  on  the  fire,  if  thou 
employ  him  as  a  tale-bearer.  But  that  is  the  way  of  all 
pedagogues  and  their  sons,  by  which  they  train  the  lads  up 
eavesdroppers  and  favour-curriers,  and  prepare  them — sirrah, 
do  you  hear1? — for  a  much  more  lasting  and  hotter  fire  than  that 
which  has  scorched  thy  son  Jack's  nether-tackle.  Do  you  mark 
me,  sir?" 

The  poor  pedagogue,  thus  cunningly  caught  in  his  own  trap, 
stood  trembling  before  his  patron,  who,  as  hereditary  head  of 
the  Bridge  Trust,  which  endowed  the  school  and  the  rest  of  the 
Bideford  charities,  could,  by  a  turn  of  his  finger,  sweep  him 
forth  with  the  besom  of  destruction ;  and  he  gasped  with  terror 
as  Sir  Richard  went  on — 

"  Therefore,  mind  you,  Sir  Schoolmaster,  unless  you  shall 
promise  me  never  to  hint  word  of  what  has  passed  between  us 
two,  and  that  neither  you  nor  yours  shall  henceforth  carry  tales 
of  my  godson,  or  speak  his  name  within  a  day's  march  of  Mistress 
Salterne's,  look  to  it,  if  I  do  not 

What  was  to  be  done  in  default  was  not  spoken ;  for  down 
went  poor  old  Vindex  on  his  knees : — 

"  Oh,  Sir  Richard  !  Excellentissime,  immd  prcecdsissirne 
Domine  et  Senator,  I  promise  !  0  sir,  Miles  et  Eques  of  the 
Garter,  Bath,  and  Golden  Fleece,  consider  your  dignities,  and 
my  old  age — and  my  great  family — nine  children — oh,  Sir 


,  MU'.   II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  31 

l!u;h:ird,  aud  eight  of  them  girls  ! — Do  eagles  war  with  mice1? 
says  the  ancient ! " 

"  Thy  large  family,  eh?  How  old  is  that  fat-witted  son  of 
thine?" 

"Sixteen,  Sir  Richard;  but  that  is  not  his  fault,  indeed  !" 

"  Nay,  I  suppose  he  would  be  still  sucking  his  thumb  if  he 
dared — get  up,  man — get  up  and  seat  yourself." 

"  Heaven  forbid  !  "  murmured  poor  Vindex,  with  deep 
humility. 

"  Why  is  not  the  rogue  at  Oxford,  with  a  murrain  on  him, 
instead  of  lurching  about  here  carrying  tales,  and  ogling  the 
maidens  1" 

"  I  had  hoped,  Sir  Richard — and  therefore  I  said  it  was  not 
his  fault — but  there  was  never  a  servitorship  at  Exeter  open." 

"  Go  to,  man — go  to  !  I  will  speak  to  my  brethren  of  the 
Trust,  and  to  Oxford  he  shall  go  this  autumn,  or  else  to  Exeter 
gaol,  for  a  strong  rogue,  and  a  masterless  man.  Do  you  hear  V 

"Hear? — oh,  sir,  yes  !  and  return  thanks.  Jack  shall  go, 
Sir  Richard,  doubt  it  not — I  were  mad  else ;  and,  Sir  Richard, 
may  I  go  too?" 

And  therewith  Vindex  vanished,  and  Sir  Richard  enjoyed  a 
second  mighty  laugh,  which  brought  in  Lady  Grenvile,  who 
possibly  had  overheard  the  whole ;  for  the  first  words  she  said 
were — 

"  I  think,  my  sweet  life,  we  had  better  go  up  to  Burrough." 

So  to  Burrough  they  went ;  and  after  much  talk,  and  many 
tears,  matters  were  so  concluded  that  Amyas  Leigh  found  him- 
self riding  joyfully  towards  Plymouth,  by  the  side  of  Sir  Richard, 
and  being  handed  over  to  Captain  Drake,  vanished  for  three 
years  from  the  good  town  of  Bideford. 

And  now  he  is  returned  in  triumph,  and  the  observed  of  all 
observers ;  and  looks  round  and  round,  and  sees  all  faces  whom 
he  expects,  except  one ;  and  that  the  one  which  he  had  rather 
see  than  his  mother's?  He  is  not  quite  sure.  Shame  on  himself! 

And  now  the  prayers  being  ended,  the  Rector  ascends  the 
pulpit,  and  begins  his  sermon  on  the  text : — 

"  The  heaven  and  the  heaven  of  heavens  are  the  Lord's ; 
the  whole  earth  hath  he  given  to  the  children  of  men ;"  deduc- 
ing therefrom  craftily,  to  the  exceeding  pleasure  of  his  hearers, 
the  iniquity  of  the  Spaniards  in  dispossessing  the  Indians,  and 
in  arrogating  to  themselves  the  sovereignty  of  the  tropic  seas ; 
the  vanity  of  the  Pope  of  Rome  in  pretending  to  bestow  on 
them  the  new  countries  of  America;  and  the  justice,  valour, 


32  II' »W  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAI-.  n. 

;uid  glory  of  Mr.  Drake  and  his  expedition,  as  testified  by  God's 
miraculous  protection  of  him  and  his,  both  in  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  and  in  his  battle  with  the  Galleon ;  and  last,  but 
not  least,  upon  the  rock  by  Celebes,  when  the  Pelican  lay  for 
hours  firmly  fixed,  and  was  floated  off  unhurt,  as  it  were  by 
miracle,  by  a  sudden  shift  of  wind. 

Ay,  smile,  reader,  if  you  will;  and,  perhaps,  there  was 
matter  for  a  smile  in  that  honest  sermon,  interlarded,  as  it  was, 
with  scraps  of  Greek  and  Hebrew,  which  no  one  understood, 
but  every  one  expected  as  their  right  (for  a  preacher  was  nothing 
then  who  could  not  prove  himself  "a  good  Latiner");  and 
graced,  moreover,  by  a  somewhat  pedantic  and  lengthy  refuta- 
tion from  Scripture  of  Dan  Horace's  cockney  horror  of  the  sea — 

"  I  Hi  robur  et  as  triplex,"  etc. 

and  his  infidel  and  ungodly  slander  against  the  "  impias  rates," 
and  their  crews. 

Smile,  if  you  will :  but  those  were  days  (and  there  were 
never  less  superstitious  ones)  in  which  Englishmen  believed  in 
the  living  God,  and  were  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge,  as  a 
matter  of  course,  His  help  and  providence,  and  calling,  in  the 
matters  of  daily  life,  which  we  now  in  our  covert  Atheism  term 
"  secular  and  carnal ; "  and  when,  the  sermon  ended,  the  Com- 
munion Service  had  begun,  and  the  bread  and  the  wine  were 
given  to  those  five  mariners,  every  gallant  gentleman  who  stood 
near  them  (for  the  press  would  not  allow  of  more)  knelt  and 
received  the  elements  with  them  as  a  thing  of  course,  and  then 
rose  to  join  with  heart  and  voice  not  merely  in  the  Gloria  in 
Excelsis,  but  in  the  Te  Deum,  which  was  the  closing  act  of  all. 
And  no  sooner  had  the  clerk  given  out  the  first  verse  of  that 
great  hymn,  than  it  was  taken  up  by  five  hundred  voices  within 
the  church,  in  bass  and  tenor,  treble  and  alto  (for  every  one 
could  sing  in  those  days,  and  the  west  country  folk,  as  now, 
were  fuller  than  any  of  music),  the  chaunt  was  caught  up  by 
the  crowd  outside,  and  rang  away  over  roof  and  river,  up  to  the 
woods  of  Annery,  and  down  to  the  marshes  of  the  Taw,  in  wave 
on  wave  of  harmony.  And  as  it  died  away,  the  shipping  in  the 
river  made  answer  with  their  thunder,  and  the  crowd  streamed 
out  again  toward  the  Bridge  Head,  whither  Sir  Richard  Gren- 
vile,  and  Sir  John  Chichester,  and  Mr.  Salterne,  the  Mayor,  led 
the  five  heroes  of  the  day  to  await  the  pageant  which  had  been 
prepared  in  honour  of  them.  And  as  they  went  by,  there  were 
few  in  the  crowd  who  did  not  press  forward  to  shake  them  by 


, HAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  33 

the  hand,  and  not  only  them,  but  their  parents  and  kinsfolk 
who  walked  behind,  till  Mrs.  Leigh,  her  stately  joy  quite  broken 
down  at  last,  could  only  answer  between  her  sobs,  "  Go  along, 
good  people — God  a  mercy,  go  along — and  God  send  you  all 
such  sons  !" 

"God  give  me  back  mine  !"  cried  an  old  red-cloaked  dame 
in  the  crowd ;  and  then,  struck  by  some  hidden  impulse,  she 
spr:m<?  forward,  and  catching  hold  of  young  Ainyas's  sleeve — 

"  Kind  sir !  dear  sir  !  For  Christ  his  sake  answer  a  poor 
old  widow  woman  !" 

"  What  is  it,  dame  ?"  quoth  Amyas,  gently  enough. 

"  Did  you  see  my  son  to  the  Indies  1 — my  son  Salvation  V 

"Salvation?"  replied  he,  with  the  air  of  one  who  recollected 
the  name. 

"  Yes,  sure,  Salvation  Yeo,  of  Clovelly.  A  tall  man  and 
black,  and  sweareth  awfully  in  his  talk,  the  Lord  forgive  him!" 

Amyas  recollected  now.  It  was  the  name  of  the  sailor  who 
had  given  him  the  wondrous  horn  five  years  ago. 

"  My  good  dame,"  said  he,  "  the  Indies  are  a  very  large 
place,  and  your  son  may  be  safe  and  sound  enough  there,  with- 
out my  having  seen  him.  I  knew  one  Salvation  Yeo.  But  he 
must  have  come  with — — .  By  the  by,  godfather,  has  Mr. 
Oxenham  come  home  ? " 

There  was  a  dead  silence  for  a  moment  among  the  gentlemen 
round ;  and  then  Sir  Richard  said  solemnly,  and  in  a  low  voice, 
turning  away  from  the  old  dame, — 

"  Amyas,  Mr.  Oxenham  has  not  come  home ;  and  from  the 
day  he  sailed,  no  word  has  been  heard  of  him  and  all  his  crew." 

"  Oh,  Sir  Richard !  and  you  kept  me  from  sailing  with  him ! 
Had  I  known  this  before  I  went  into  church,  I  had  had  one 
mercy  more  to  thank  God  for." 

"Thank  Him  all  the  more  in  thy  life,  my  child!"  whispered 
his  mother. 

"And  no  news  of  him  whatsoever  1 " 

"  None ;  but  that  the  year  after  he  sailed,  a  ship  belonging 
to  Andrew  Barker,  of  Bristol,  took  out  of  a  Spanish  caravel, 
somewhere  off  the  Honduras,  his  two  brass  guns ;  but  whence 
they  came  the  Spaniard  knew  not,  having  bought  them  at 
Nombre  de  Dios." 

"Yen!"  cried  the  old  woman;  "they  brought  home  the 
guns  and  never  brought  home  my  boy  !" 

"  They  never  saw  your  boy,  mother,"  said  Sir  Richard. 

"  But  I've  seen  him  !  I  saw  him  in  a  dream  four  years  last 
D 


34  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

Whitsuntide,  as  plain  as  I  see  you  now,  gentles,  a-lying  upon  a 
rock,  calling  for  a  drop  of  water  to  cool  his  tongue,  like  Dives  to 
the  torment !  Oh  !  dear  me  ! "  and  the  old  dame  wept  bitterly. 

"  There  is  a  rose  noble  for  you  !"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"  And  there  another  ! "  said  Sir  Richard.  And  in  a  few 
minutes  four  or  five  gold  coins  were  in  her  hand.  But  the  old 
dame  did  but  look  wonderingly  at  the  gold  a  moment,  and  then — 

"  Ah  !  dear  gentles,  God's  blessing  on  you,  and  Mr.  Gary's 
mighty  good  to  me  already  ;  but  gold  won't  buy  back  childer  ! 
0  !  young  gentleman  !  young  gentleman  !  make  me  a  promise  ; 
if  you  want  God's  blessing  on  you  this  day,  bring  me  back  my 
boy,  if  you  find  him  sailing  on  the  seas  !  Bring  him  back,  and 
an  old  widow's  blessing  be  on  you  ! " 

Amyas  promised — what  else  could  he  do  1 — and  the  group 
hurried  on ;  but  the  lad's  heart  was  heavy  in  the  midst  of  joy, 
with  the  thought  of  John  Oxenham,  as  he  walked  through  the 
churchyard,  and  down  the  short  street  which  led  between  the 
ancient  school  and  still  more  ancient  town-house,  to  the  head  of 
the  long  bridge,  across  which  the  pageant,  having  arranged  "east- 
the-water,"  was  to  defile,  and  then  turn  to  the  right  along  the 
quay. 

However,  he  was  bound  in  all  courtesy  to  turn  his  attention 
now  to  the  show  which  had  been  prepared  in  his  honour ;  and 
which  was  really  well  enough  worth  seeing  and  hearing.  The 
English  were,  in  those  days,  an  altogether  dramatic  people  ; 
ready  and  able,  as  in  Bideford  that  day,  to  extemporise  a  pageant, 
a  masque,  or  any  effort  of  the  Thespian  art  short  of  the  regular 
drama.  For  they  were,  in  the  first  place,  even  down  to  the 
very  poorest,  a  well-fed  people,  with  fewer  luxuries  than  we, 
but  more  abundant  necessaries ;  and  while  beef,  ale,  and  good 
woollen  clothes  could  be  obtained  in  plenty,  without  overwork- 
ing either  body  or  soul,  men  had  time  to  amuse  themselves  in 
something  more  intellectual  than  mere  toping  in  pot-houses. 
Moreover,  the  half  century  after  the  Reformation  in  England 
was  one  not  merely  of  new  intellectual  freedom,  but  of  immense 
animal  good  spirits.  After  years  of  dumb  confusion  and  cruel 
persecution,  a  breathing  time  had  come  :  Mary  and  the  fires  of 
Smithfield  had  vanished  together  like  a  hideous  dream,  and  the 
mighty  shout  of  joy  which  greeted  Elizabeth's  entry  into  London, 
was  the  key-note  of  fifty  glorious  years ;  the  expression  of  a 
new-found  strength  and  freedom,  which  vented  itself  at  home  in 
drama  and  in  song ;  abroad  in  mighty  conquests,  achieved  with 
the  laughing  recklessness  of  boys  at  play. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  35 

So  first,  preceded  by  the  waits,  came  along  the  bridge 
toward  the  town-hall,  a  device  prepared  by  the  good  rector,  who, 
standing  by,  acted  as  showman,  and  explained  anxiously  to  the 
bystanders  the  import  of  a  certain  "allegory"  wherein  on  a  great 
banner  was  depicted  Queen  Elizabeth  herself,  who,  in  ample  ruff 
and  farthingale,  a  Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  sword  in  the  other, 
stood  triumphant  upon  the  necks  of  two  sufficiently  abject  per- 
sonages, whose  triple  tiara  and  imperial  crown  proclaimed  them 
the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Spain ;  while  a  label,  issuing  from 
her  royal  mouth,  informed  the  world  that — 

"  By  land  and  sea  a  virgin  queen  I  reign, 

And  spurn  to  dust  both  Antichrist  and  Spain." 

Which,  having  been  received  with  due  applause,  a  well-bedizened 
lad,  having  in  his  cap  as  a  posy  "  Loyalty,"  stepped  forward, 
and  delivered  himself  of  the  following  verses  : — 

"  Oh,  great  Eliza  !  oh,  world-famous  crew  ! 
Which  shall  I  hail  more  blest,  your  queen  or  you  ? 
While  without  other  either  falls  to  wrack, 
And  light  must  eyes,  or  eyes  their  light  must  lack. 
She  without  you,  a  diamond  sunk  in  mine, 
Its  worth  unprized,  to  self  alone  must  shine  ; 
You  without  her,  like  hands  bereft  of  head, 
Like  Ajax  rage,  by  blindfold  lust  misled. 
She  light,  you  eyes  ;  she  head,  and  you  the  hands, 
In  fair  proportion  knit  by  heavenly  bands  ; 
Servants  in  queen,  and  queen  in  servants  blest ; 
Your  only  glory,  how  to  serve  her  best  ; 
And  hers  how  best  the  adventurous  might  to  guide, 
Which  knows  no  check  of  foemen,  wind,  or  tide, 
So  fair  Eliza's  spotless  fame  may  fly 
Triumphant  round  the  globe,  and  shake  th'  astounded  sky  !" 

With  which  sufficiently  bad  verses  Loyalty  passed  on,  while  my 
Lady  Bath  hinted  to  Sir  Richard,  not  without  reason,  that  the 
poet,  in  trying  to  exalt  both  parties,  had  very  sufficiently  snubbed 
both,  and  intimated,  that  it  was  "  hardly  safe  for  country  wits 
to  attempt  that  euphuistic,  antithetical,  and  delicately  conceited 
vein,  whose  proper  fountain  was  in  Whitehall."  However,  on 
went  Loyalty,  very  well  pleased  with  himself,  and  next,  amid 
much  cheering,  two  great  tinsel  fish,  a  salmon,  and  a  trout, 
symbolical  of  the  wealth  of  Torridge,  waddled  along,  by  means 
of  two  human  legs  and  a  staff  apiece,  which  protruded  from  the 
fishes'  stomachs.  They  drew  (or  seemed  to  draw,  for  half  the 
'prentices  in  the  town  were  shoving  it  behind,  and  cheering  on 
the  panting  monarchs  of  the  flood)  a  car  wherein  sate,  amid 
reeds  and  river-flags,  three  or  four  pretty  girls  in  robes  of  grey- 


36  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

blue  spangled  with  gold,  their  heads  wreathed  one  with  a  crown 
of  the  sweet  bog-myrtle,  another  with  hops  and  white  convol- 
vulus, the  third  with  pale  heather  and  golden  fern.  They 
stopped  opposite  Amyas  ;  and  she  of  the  myrtle  wreath,  rising 
and  bowing  to  him  and  the  company,  began  with  a  pretty  blush 
to  say  her  say  : — 

"  Hither  from  my  moorland  home, 

Nymph  of  Torridge,  proud  I  come  ; 

Leaving  fen  and  furzy  brake, 

Haunt  of  eft  and  spotted  snake, 

Where  to  fill  mine  urns  I  use, 

Daily  with  Atlantic  dews  ; 

While  beside  the  reedy  flood 

Wild  duck  leads  her  paddling  brood. 

For  this  morn,  as  Phoebus  gay 

Chased  through  heaven  the  night  mist  grey, 

Close  beside  me,  prankt  in  pride, 

Sister  Tamar  rose,  and  cried, 
'  Sluggard,  up  !   'Tis  holiday, 

In  the  lowlands  far  away. 

Hark  !  how  jocund  Plymouth  bells, 

Wandering  up  through  mazy  dells, 

Call  me  down,  with  smiles  to  hail, 

My  daring  Drake's  returning  sail. ' 
'  Thine  alone  ? '  I  answer'd.     '  Nay ; 

Mine  as  well  the  joy  to-day. 

Heroes  train'd  on  Northern  wave, 

To  that  Argo  new  I  gave  ; 

Lent  to  thee,  they  roam'd  the  main ; 

Give  me,  nymph,  my  sons  again.' 
'  Go,  they  wait  Thee,'  Tamar  cried, 

Southward  bounding  from  my  side. 

Glad  I  rose,  and  at  my  call, 

Came  my  Naiads,  one  and  all. 

Nursling  of  the  mountain  sky, 

Leaving  Dian's  choir  on  high, 

Down  her  cataracts  laughing  loud, 

Ockment  leapt  from  crag  and  cloud, 

Leading  many  a  nymph,  who  dwells 

Where  wild  deer  drink  in  ferny  dells ; 

While  the  Oreads  as  they  past 

Peep'd  from  Druid  Tors  aghast. 

By  alder  copses  sliding  slow, 

Knee-deep  in  flowers  came  gentler  Yeo 

And  paused  awhile  her  locks  to  twine 

With  musky  hops  and  white  woodbine, 

Then  joined  the  silver-footed  band, 

Which  circled  down  my  golden  sand, 

By  dappled  park,  and  harbour  shady, 

Haunt  of  love-lorn  knight  and  lady, 

My  thrice-renowned  sons  to  greet, 

With  rustic  song  and  pageant  meet. 


CHAT.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  37 

For  joy  !  the  girdled  robe  around 
Eliza's  name  henceforth  shall  sound, 
Whose  venturous  fleets  to  conquest  start, 
Where  ended  once  the  seaman's  chart, 
While  circling  Sol  his  steps  shall  count 
Henceforth  from  Thule's  western  mount, 
And  lead  new  rulers  round  the  seas 
From  furthest  Cassiterides. 
For  found  is  now  the  golden  tree, 
Solv'd  th'  Atlantic  mystery, 
Pluck'd  the  dragon-guarded  fruit ; 
While  around  the  charmed  root, 
Wailing  loud,  the  Hesperids 
Watch  their  warder's  drooping  lids. 
Low  he  lies  with  grisly  wound, 
While  the  sorceress  triple-crown'd 
In  her  scarlet  robe  doth  shield  him, 
Till  her  cunning  spells  have  heal'd  him. 
Ye,  meanwhile,  around  the  earth 
Bear  the  prize  of  manful  worth. 
Yet  a  nobler  meed  than  gold 
Waits  for  Albion's  children  bold  ; 
Great  Eliza's  virgin  hand 
Welcomes  you  to  Fairy-land, 
While  your  native  Naiads  bring 
Native  wreaths  as  offering. 
Simple  though  their  show  may  be, 
Britain's  worship  in  them  see. 
'Tis  not  price,  nor  outward  fairness, 
Gives  the  victor's  palm  its  rareness ; 
Simplest  tokens  can  impart 
Noble  throb  to  noble  heart  : 
Graecia,  prize  thy  parsley  crown, 
Boast  thy  laurel,  Csesar's  town  ; 
Moorland  myrtle  still  shall  be 
Badge  of  Devon's  Chivalry  ! " 

And  so  ending,  she  took  the  wreath  of  fragrant  gale  from 
her  own  head,  and  stooping  from  the  car,  placed  it  on  the  head 
of  Amyas  Leigh,  who  made  answer — 

"  There  is  no  place  like  home,  my  fair  mistress ;  and  no 
scent  to  my  taste  like  this  old  home -scent  in  all  the  spice- 
islands  that  I  ever  sailed  by  !" 

"  Her  song  was  not  so  bad,"  said  Sir  Kichard  to  Lady  Bath 
— "  but  how  came  she  to  hear  Plymouth  bells  at  Tamar-head, 
full  fifty  miles  away  1  That's  too  much  of  a  poet's  licence,  is 
it  not  V 

"  The  river  nymphs,  as  daughters  of  Oceanus,  and  thus  of 
immortal  parentage,  are  bound  to  possess  organs  of  more  than 
mortal  keenness ;  but,  as  you  say,  the  song  was  not  so  bad — 


38  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

erudite,  as  well  as  prettily  conceived — and,  saving  for  a  certain 
rustical  simplicity  and  monosyllabic  baldness,  smacks  rather  of 
the  forests  of  Castaly  than  those  of  Torridge." 

So  spake  my  Lady  Bath ;  whom  Sir  Richard  wisely  answered 
not  j  for  she  was  a  terribly  learned  member  of  the  college  of 
critics,  and  disputed  even  with  Sidney's  sister  the  chieftaincy 
of  the  Euphuists  ;  so  Sir  Richard  answered  not,  but  answer 
was  made  for  him. 

"  Since  the  whole  choir  of  Muses,  madam,  have  migrated  to 
the  Court  of  Whitehall,  no  wonder  if  some  dews  of  Parnassus 
should  fertilise  at  times  even  our  Devon  moors." 

The  speaker  was  a  tall  and  slim  young  man,  some  five-and- 
twenty  years  old,  of  so  rare  and  delicate  a  beauty,  that  it  seemed 
that  some  Greek  statue,  or  rather  one  of  those  pensive  and  pious 
knights  whom  the  old  German  artists  took  delight  to  paint,  had 
condescended  to  tread  awhile  this  work-day  earth  in  living  flesh 
and  blood.  The  forehead  was  very  lofty  and  smooth,  the  eye- 
brows thin  and  greatly  arched  (the  envious  gallants  whispered 
that  something  at  least  of  their  curve  was  due  to  art,  as  was 
also  the  exceeding  smoothness  of  those  delicate  cheeks).  The 
face  was  somewhat  long  and  thin ;  the  nose  aquiline ;  and  the 
languid  mouth  showed,  perhaps,  too  much  of  the  ivory  upper 
teeth  ;  but  the  most  striking  point  of  the  speaker's  appearance 
was  the  extraordinary  brilliancy  of  his  complexion,  which 
shamed  with  its  whiteness  that  of  all  fair  ladies  round,  save 
where  open  on  each  cheek  a  bright  red  spot  gave  warning,  as 
did  the  long  thin  neck  and  the  taper  hands,  of  sad  possibilities, 
perhaps  not  far  off ;  possibilities  which  all  saw  with  an  inward 
sigh,  except  she  whose  doting  glances,  as  well  as  her  resemblance 
to  the  fair  youth,  proclaimed  her  at  once  his  mother,  Mrs.  Leigh 
herself. 

Master  Frank,  for  he  it  was,  was  dressed  in  the  very  extra- 
vagance of  the  fashion, — not  so  much  from  vanity,  as  from  that 
delicate  instinct  of  self-respect  which  would  keep  some  men 
spruce  and  spotless  from  one  year's  end  to  another  upon  a  desert 
island ;  "  for,"  as  Frank  used  to  say  in  his  sententious  way, 
"  Mr.  Frank  Leigh  at  least  beholds  me,  though  none  else  be  by ; 
and  why  should  I  be  more  discourteous  to  him  than  I  permit 
others  to  be  ?  Be  sure  that  he  who  is  a  Grobian  in  his  own 
company,  will,  sooner  or  later,  become  a  Grobian  in  that  of  his 
friends." 

So  Mr.  Frank  was  arrayed  spotlessly  ;  but  after  the  latest 
fashion  of  Milan,  not  in  trunk  hose  and  slashed  sleeves,  nor  in 


CIIAI-.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  39 

"  French  standing  collar,  treble  quadruple  dsedalian  ruff,  or 
stiff-necked  rabato,  that  had  more  arches  for  pride,  propped  up 
with  wire  and  timber,  than  five  London  Bridges  ;"  but  in  a  close- 
fitting  and  perfectly  plain  suit  of  dove-colour,  which  set  off 
cunningly  the  delicate  proportions  of  his  figure,  and  the  delicate 
hue  of  his  complexion,  which  was  shaded  from  the  sun  by  a 
broad  dove-coloured  Spanish  hat,  with  feather  to  match,  looped 
up  over  the  right  ear  with  a  pearl  brooch,  and  therein  a  crowned 
E,  supposed  by  the  damsels  of  Bideford  to  stand  for  Elizabeth, 
which  was  whispered  to  be  the  gift  of  some  most  illustrious 
hand.  This  same  looping  up  was  not  without  good  reason  and 
purpose  prepense  ;  thereby  all  the  world  had  full  view  of  a 
beautiful  little  ear,  which  looked  as  if  it  had  been  cut  of  cameo, 
and  made,  as  my  Lady  Kich  once  told  him,  "  to  hearken  only 
to  the  music  of  the  spheres,  or  to  the  chants  of  cherubim." 
Behind  the  said  ear  was  stuck  a  fresh  rose ;  and  the  golden 
hair  was  all  drawn  smoothly  back  and  round  to  the  left  temple, 
whence,  tied  with  a  pink  ribbon  in  a  great  true  lover's  knot,  a 
mighty  love-lock,  "  curled  as  it  had  been  laid  in  press,"  rolled 
down  low  upon  his  bosom.  Oh,  Frank  !  Frank  !  have  you 
come  out  on  purpose  to  break  the  hearts  of  all  Bideford  burghers' 
daughters  ?  And  if  so,  did  you  expect  to  further  that  triumph 
by  dyeing  that  pretty  little  pointed  beard  (with  shame  I  report 
it)  of  a  bright  vermilion  ?  But  we  know  you  better,  Frank,  and 
&o  does  your  mother ;  and  you  are  but  a  masquerading  angel 
after  all,  in  spite  of  your  knots  and  your  perfumes,  and  the  gold 
chain  round  your  neck  which  a  German  princess  gave  you ;  and 
the  emerald  ring  on  your  right  fore-finger  which  Hatton  gave 
you ;  and  the  pair  of  perfumed  gloves  in  your  left  which 
Sidney's  sister  gave  you ;  and  the  silver-hilted  Toledo  which 
an  Italian  marquis  gave  you  on  a  certain  occasion  of  which  you 
never  choose  to  talk,  like  a  prudent  and  modest  gentleman  as 
you  are  ;  but  of  which  the  gossips  talk,  of  course,  all  the  more, 
and  whisper  that  you  saved  his  life  from  bravoes — a  dozen,  at 
the  least ;  and  had  that  sword  for  your  reward,  and  might  have 
had  his  beautiful  sister's  hand  beside,  and  I  know  not  what  else ; 
but  that  you  had  so  many  lady-loves  already  that  you  were  loth 
to  burden  yourself  with  a  fresh  one.  That,  at  least,  we  know 
to  be  a  lie,  fair  Frank ;  for  your  heart  is  as  pure  this  day  as 
when  you  knelt  in  your  little  crib  at  Burrough,  and  said — 

"  Four  comers  to  my  bed  ; 
Four  angels  round  my  head  ; 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John, 
Bless  the  bed  that  I  lie  on. " 


40  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  n. 

And  who  could  doubt  it  (if  being  pure  themselves,  they  have 
instinctive  sympathy  with  what  is  pure),  who  ever  looked  into 
those  great  deep  blue  eyes  of  yours,  "  the  black  fringed  curtains 
of  whose  azure  lids,"  usually  down-dropt  as  if  in  deepest  thought, 
you  raise  slowly,  almost  wonderingly  each  time  you  speak,  as  if 
awakening  from  some  fair  dream  whose  home  is  rather  in  your 
Platonical  "  eternal  world  of  supra-sensible  forms,"  than  on  that 
work-day  earth  wherein  you  nevertheless  acquit  yourself  so 
well  ?  There — I  must  stop  describing  you,  or  I  shall  catch  the 
infection  of  your  own  Euphuism,  and  talk  of  you  as  you  would 
have  talked  of  Sidney  or  of  Spenser,  or  of  that  Swan  of  Avon, 

whose   song  had  just  begun  when  yours but  I  will  not 

anticipate ;  my  Lady  Bath  is  waiting  to  give  you  her  rejoinder. 

"  Ah,  my  silver-tongued  scholar  !  and  are  you,  then,  the 
poet  ?  or  have  you  been  drawing  on  the  inexhaustible  bank  of 
your  friend  Raleigh,  or  my  cousin  Sidney  ?  or  has  our  new 
Cygnet  Immerito  lent  you  a  few  unpublished  leaves  from  some 
fresh  Shepherd's  Calendar?" 

"  Had  either,  madam,  of  that  cynosural  triad  been  within 
call  of  my  most  humble  importunities,  your  ears  had  been  de- 
lectate  with  far  nobler  melody." 

"  But  not  our  eyes  with  fairer  faces,  eh  1  Well,  you  have 
chosen  your  nymphs,  and  had  good  store  from  whence  to  pick,  I 
doubt  not.  Few  young  Dulcinas  round  but  must  have  been 
glad  to  take  service  under  so  renowned  a  captain  V 

"  The  only  difficulty,  gracious  Countess,  has  been  to  know 
where  to  fix  the  wandering  choice  of  my  bewildered  eyes,  where 
all  alike  are  fair,  and  all  alike  facund." 

"  We  understand,"  said  she,  smiling; — 

"  Dan  Cupid,  choosing  'midst  his  mother's  graces, 
Himself  more  fair,  made  scorn  of  fairest  faces." 

The  young  scholar  capped  her  distich  forthwith,  and  bowing 
to  her  with  a  meaning  look, 

"  '  Then,  Goddess,  turn,'  he  cried,  'and  veil  thy  light  ; 
Blinded  by  thine,  what  eyes  can  choose  aright  ?'  " 

"  Go,  saucy  sir,"  said  my  lady,  in  high  glee  :  "  the  pageant 
stays  your  supreme  pleasure." 

And  away  went  Mr.  Frank  as  master  of  the  revels,  to  bring 
up  the  'prentices'  pageant ;  while,  for  his  sake,  the  nymph  of 
Torridge  was  forgotten  for  awhile  by  all  young  dames,  and  most 
young  gentlemen  :  and  his  mother  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  which 
Lady  Bath  overhearing — 

"What1?  in  the  dumps,  good  madam,  while  all  are  rejoic- 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  41 

ing  in  your  joy?  Are  you  afraid  that  we  court  -dames  shall 
turn  your  young  Adonis'  brain  for  him?" 

"  I  do,  indeed,  fear  lest  your  condescension  should  make 
him  forget  that  he  is  only  a  poor  squire's  orphan." 

"  I  will  warrant  him  never  to  forget  aught  that  he  should 
recollect,"  said  my  Lady  Bath. 

And  she  spoke  truly.  But  soon  Frank's  silver  voice  was 
heard  calling  out  — 

"  Room  there,  good  people,  for  the  gallant  'prentice  lads  !" 

And  on  they  came,  headed  by  a  giant  of  buckram  and 
pasteboard  armour,  forth  of  whose  stomach  looked,  like  a 
clock-face  in  a  steeple,  a  human  visage,  to  be  greeted,  as  was  the 
fashion  then,  by  a  volley  of  quips  and  puns  from  high  and  low. 

Young  Mr.  William  Gary,  of  Clovelly,  who  was  the  wit  of 
those  parts,  opened  the  fire  by  asking  him  whether  he  were 
Goliath,  Gogmagog,  or  Grantorto  in  the  romance  ;  for  giants' 
names  always  began  with  a  G.  To  which  the  giant's  stomach 
answered  pretty  surlily,  — 

"  Mine  don't  ;  I  begin  with  an  0." 

"  Then  thou  criest  out  before  thou  art  hurt,  0  cowardly 
giant!" 

"  Let  me  out,  lads,"  quoth  the  irascible  visage,  struggling 
in  his  buckram  prison,  "  and  I  soon  show  him  whether  I  be  a 
coward." 

"Nay,  if  thou  gettest  out  of  thyself,  thou  wouldst  be  beside 
thyself,  and  so  wert  but  a  mad  giant." 

"And  that  were  pity,"  said  Lady  Bath;  "for  by  the 
romances,  giants  have  never  overmuch  wit  to  spare." 

"  Mercy,  dear  Lady  !"  said  Frank,  "  and  let  the  giant  begin 
with  an  0." 


"  A  false  start,  giant  !  you  were  to  begin  with  an  0." 

"  I'll  make  you  end  with  an  0,  Mr.  William  Gary  !"  roared 
the  testy  tower  of  buckram. 

"  And  so  I  do,  for  I  end  with  '  Fico  !'  " 

"  Be  mollified,  sweet  giant,"  said  Frank,  "  and  spare  the 
rash  youth  of  yon  foolish  Knight.  Shall  elephants  catch  flies, 
or  Hurlo-Thrumbo  stain  his  club  with  brains  of  Dagonet  the 
jester?  Be  mollified;  leave  thy  caverned  grumblings,  like  Etna 
when  its  windy  wrath  is  past,  and  discourse  eloquence  from  thy 
central  omphalos,  like  Pythoness  ventriloquising." 

"  If  you  do  begin  laughing  at  me  too,  Mr.  Leigh  -  "  said 
the  giant's  clock-face,  in  a  piteous  tone. 


42  HOW  AMY  AS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

"  I  laugh  not.  Art  thou  not  Ordulf  the  earl,  and  I  thy 
humblest  squire  1  Speak  up,  my  Lord ;  your  cousin,  my  Lady 
Bath,  commands  you." 

And  at  last  the  giant  began  : — 

"  A  giant  I,  Earl  Ordulf  men  me  call, — 
'Gainst  Paynim  foes  Devonia's  champion  tall ; 
In  single  fight  six  thousand  Turks  I  slew ; 
Pull'd  off  a  lion's  head,  and  ate  it  too  : 
With  one  shrewd  blow,  to  let  Saint  Edward  in, 
I  smote  the  gates  of  Exeter  in  twain  ; 
Till  aged  grown,  by  angels  warn'd  in  dream, 
I  built  an  abbey  fair  by  Tavy  stream. 
But  treacherous  time  hath  tripped  my  glories  up, 
The  staunch  old  hound  must  yield  to  stauncher  pup  ; 
Here's  one  so  tall  as  I,  and  twice  so  bold, 
Where  I  took  only  cuffs,  takes  good  red  gold. 
From  pole  to  pole  resound  his  wondrous  works, 
Who  slew  more  Spaniards  than  I  ere  slew  Turks  ; 
I  strode  across  the  Tavy  stream  :  but  he 
Strode  round  the  world  and  back ;  and  here  'a  be  ! ' 

"  Oh,  bathos !"  said  Lady  Bath,  while  the  'prentices  shouted 
applause.  "  Is  this  hedgebantling  to  be  fathered  on  you,  Mr. 
Frank?" 

"  It  is  necessary,  by  all  laws  of  the  drama,  Madam,"  said 
Frank,  with  a  sly  smile,  "  that  the  speech  and  the  speaker  shall 
fit  each  other.  Pass  on,  Earl  Ordulf;  a  more  learned  worthy 
waits." 

Whereon,  up  came  a  fresh  member  of  the  procession ;  namely 
no  less  a  person  than  Vindex  Brimblecombe,  the  ancient  school- 
master, with  five-and-forty  boys  at  his  heels,  who  halting,  pulled 
out  his  spectacles,  and  thus  signified  his  forgiveness  of  his 
whilome  broken  head  : — 

"  That  the  world  should  have  been  circumnavigated,  ladies 
and  gentles,  were  matter  enough  of  jubilation  to  the  student  of 

Herodotus  and  Plato,  Plinius  and ahem  !  much  more  when 

the  circumnavigators  are  Britons ;  more,  again,  when  Dam- 
nonians." 

"  Don't  swear,  master,"  said  young  Will  Gary. 

"Guliehne  Gary,  Gulielme  Gary,  hast  thou  forgotten  thy " 

"  Whippings  ?  Never,  old  lad  !  Go  on  ;  but  let  not  the 
licence  of  the  scholar  overtop  the  modesty  of  the  Christian." 

"  More  again,  as  I  said,  when,  incolce,  inhabitants  of  Devon ; 
but,  most  of  all,  men  of  Bideford  School.  Oh  renowned  school ! 
Oh  schoolboys  ennobled  by  fellowship  with  him  !  Oh  most 
happy  pedagogue,  to  whom  it  has  befallen  to  have  chastised  a 


OHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  43 

circumnavigator,  and,  like  another  Chiron,  trained  another 
Hercules  :  yet  more  than  Hercules,  for  he  placed  his  pillars  on 
the  ocean  shore,  and  then  returned ;  but  my  scholar's  voyage — 

'•  Hark  how  the  old  fox  is  praising  himself  all  along  on  the 
sly,"  said  Gary. 

"  Mr.  William,  Mr.  William,  peace ; — silentium,  iny  grace- 
less pupil.  Urge  the  foaming  steed,  and  strike  terror  into  the 
rapid  stag,  but  meddle  not  with  matters  too  high  for  thee." 

"  He  has  given  you  the  dor  now,  sir,"  said  Lady  Bath  ; 
"  let  the  old  man  say  his  say." 

"  I  bring,  therefore,  as  my  small  contribution  to  this  day's 
feast ;  first  a  Latin  epigram,  as  thus — 

"  Latin  1     Let  us  hear  it  forthwith,"  cried  my  Lady. 

And  the  old  pedant  mouthed  out, — 

"  Torriguiam  Tamaris  ne  spernat ;  Leighius  addet 
Mox  terras  terris,  inclyte  Drake,  tuis." 

"Neat,  i'  faith,  la!"  Whereon  all  the  rest,  as  in  duty 
bound,  approved  also. 

"  This  for  the  erudite :  for  vulgar  ears  the  vernacular  is 
more  consonant,  sympathetic,  instructive ;  as  thus  : — 

"  Famed  Argo  ship,  that  noble  chip,  by  doughty  Jason's  steering, 
Brought  back  to  Greece  the  golden  fleece,  from  Colchis  home  careering  ; 
But  now  her  fame  is  put  to  shame,  while  new  Devonian  Argo, 
Round  earth  doth  run  in  wake  of  sun,  and  brings  a  wealthier  cargo." 

"  Runs  with  a  right  fa-lal-la,"  observed  Gary  ;  "  and  would 
go  nobly  to  a  fiddle  and  a  big  drum." 

"  Ye  Spaniards,  quake  !  our  doughty  Drake  a  royal  swan  is  tested, 
On  wing  and  oar,  from  shore  to  shore,  the  raging  main  who  breasted : — 
But  never  needs  to  chant  his  deeds,  like  swan  that  lies  a-dying, 
So  far  his  name  by  trump  of  fame,  around  the  sphere  is  flying. " 

"  Hillo  ho  !  schoolmaster  !"  shouted  a  voice  from  behind  ; 
"move  on,  and  make  way  for  father  Neptune!"  Whereon  a 
whole  storm  of  raillery  fell  upon  the  hapless  pedagogue. 

"  We  waited  for  the  parson's  alligator,  but  we  wain't  for 
your'n." 

"Allegory!  my  children,  allegory!"  shrieked  the  man  of 
letters. 

"  What  do  ye  call  he  an  alligator  for  1  He  is  but  a  poor 
little  starved  evat !" 

"  Out  of  the  road,  Old  Custis  !     March  on,  Don  Palmado  !" 

These  allusions  to  the  usual  instrument  of  torture  in  west 


44  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

country  schools  made  the  old  gentleman  wince  ;  especially  when 
they  were  followed  home  by — 

"  Who  stole  Admiral  Grenvile's  brooms,  because  birch  rods 
were  dear  1" 

But  proudly  he  shook  his  bald  head,  as  a  bull  shakes  off  the 
flies,  and  returned  to  the  charge  once  more. 

"  Great  Alexander,  famed  commander,  wept  and  made  a  pother, 
At  conquering  only  half  the  world,  but  Drake  had  conquer'd  t'other ; 
And  Hercules  to  brink  of  seas  ! " 

«  Oh  ! " 

And  clapping  both  hands  to  the  back  of  his  neck,  the  school- 
master began  dancing  frantically  about,  while  his  boys  broke 
out  tittering,  "  0  !  the  ochidore !  look  to  the  blue  ochidore ! 
Who've  put  ochidore  to  maister's  poll ! " 

It  was  too  true :  neatly  inserted,  as  he  stooped  forward, 
between  his  neck  and  his  collar,  was  a  large  live  shore-crab, 
holding  on  tight  with  both  hands. 

"Gentles!  good  Christians!  save  me!  I  am  mar  e- rode  ! 
Incubo,  vel  ab  incubo,  opprimor  !  Satanas  has  me  by  the  poll ! 
Help  !  he  tears  my  jugular ;  he  wrings  my  neck,  as  he  does  to 
Dr.  Faustus  in  the  play.  Conftteor ! — I  confess!  Satan,  I 
defythee!  Good  people,  I  confess !  Bao-avt^d/Aai!  The  truth 
will  out.  Mr.  Francis  Leigh  wrote  the  epigram  !"  And  diving 
through  the  crowd,  the  pedagogue  vanished  howling,  while 
Father  Neptune,  crowned  with  sea-weeds,  a  trident  in  one  hand, 
and  a  live  dog-fish  in  the  other,  swaggered  up  the  street  sur- 
rounded by  a  tall  bodyguard  of  mariners,  and  followed  by  a 
great  banner,  on  which  was  depicted  a  globe,  with  Drake's  ship 
sailing  thereon  upside  down,  and  overwritten — 

"  See  every  man  the  Pelican, 

Which  round  the  world  did  go, 
While  her  stern-post  was  uppermost, 

And  topmasts  down  below. 
And  by  the  way  she  lost  a  day, 

Out  of  her  log  was  stole  : 
But  Neptune  kind,  with  favouring  wind, 

Hath  brought  her  safe  and  whole. " 

"  Now,  lads  !"  cried  Neptune  ;  "  hand  me  my  parable  that's 
writ  for  me,  and  here  goeth  ! "  And  at  the  top  of  his  bull- voice, 
he  began  roaring, — 

"  I  am  King  Neptune  bold, 

The  ruler  of  the  seas; 

I  don't  understand  much  singing  upon  land, 
But  I  hope  what  I  say  will  please. 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  45 

' '  Here  be  five  Bideford  men, 

Which  have  sail'd  the  world  around, 
And  I  watch'd  them  well,  as  they  all  can  tell, 
And  brought  them  home  safe  and  sound. 

"  For  it  is  the  men  of  Devon. 

To  see  them  I  take  delight, 

Both  to  tack  and  to  hull,  and  to  heave  and  to  pull 
And  to  prove  themselves  in  fight. 

"  Where  be  those  Spaniards  proud, 
That  make  their  valiant  boasts  ; 

And  think  for  to  keep  the  poor  Indians  for  their  sheep, 
And  to  farm  my  golden  coasts  ? 

"  'Twas  the  devil  and  the  Pope  gave  them 

My  kingdom  for  their  own  : 

But  my  nephew  Francis  Drake,  he  caused  them  to  quake, 
And  he  pick'd  them  to  the  bone. 

' '  For  the  sea  my  realm  it  is, 

As  good  Queen  Bess's  is  the  land  ; 
So  freely  come  again,  all  merry  Devon  men. 
And  there's  old  Neptune's  hand." 

"  Holla,  boys  !  holla  !  Blow  up,  Triton,  and  bring  forward 
the  freedom  of  the  seas." 

Triton,  roaring  through  a  conch,  brought  forward  a  cockle- 
shell full  of  salt-water,  and  delivered  it  solemnly  to  Amyas, 
who,  of  course,  put  a  noble  into  it,  and  returned  it  after  Gren- 
vile  had  done  the  same. 

"  Holla,  Dick  Admiral !"  cried  Neptune,  who  was  pretty  far 
gone  in  liquor ;  "we  knew  thou  hadst  a  right  English  heart 
in  thee,  for  all  thou  standest  there  as  taut  as  a  Don  who 
has  swallowed  his  rapier." 

"  Grammercy,  stop  thy  bellowing,  fellow,  and  on ;  for  thou 
smellest  vilely  of  fish." 

"  Everything  smells  sweet  in  its  right  place.    I'm  going  home." 

':  I  thought  thou  wert  there  all  along,  being  already  half- 
seas  over,"  said  Gary. 

"  Ay,  right  Upsee-Dutch ;  and  that's  more  than  thou  ever 
wilt  be,  thou  'long-shore  stay-at-home.  Why  wast  making 
sheep's  eyes  at  Mistress  Salterne  here,  while  my  pretty  little 
chuck  of  Burrough  there  was  playing  at  shove-groat  with  Span- 
ish doubloons  1" 

"Go  to  the  devil,  sirrah  !"  said  Gary.  Neptune  had  touched 
on  a  sore  subject ;  and  more  cheeks  than  Amyas  Leigh's  red- 
dened at  the  hint. 


46  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  II. 

"  Amen,  if  Heaven  so  please  ! "  and  on  rolled  the  monarch 
of  the  seas ;  and  so  the  pageant  ended. 

The  moment  Amyas  had  an  opportunity,  he  asked  his  brother 
Frank,  somewhat  peevishly,  where  Rose  Salterne  was. 

"  What !  the  mayor's  daughter  1  With  her  uncle  by  Kilk- 
hampton,  I  believe." 

Now  cunning  Master  Frank,  whose  daily  wish  was  to  "seek 
peace  and  ensue  it,"  told  Amyas  this,  because  he  must  needs 
speak  the  truth :  but  he  was  purposed  at  the  same  time  to  speak 
as  little  truth  as  he  could,  for  fear  of  accidents ;  and,  therefore, 
omitted  to  tell  his  brother  how  that  he,  two  days  before,  had 
entreated  Rose  Salterne  herself  to  appear  as  the  nymph  of  Tor- 
ridge  ;  which  honour  she,  who  had  no  objection  either  to  ex- 
hibit her  pretty  face,  to  recite  pretty  poetry,  or  to  be  trained 
thereto  by  the  cynosure  of  North  Devon,  would  have  assented 
willingly,  but  that  her  father  stopped  the  pretty  project  by  a 
peremptory  countermove,  and  packed  her  off,  in  spite  of  her  tears, 
to  the  said  uncle  on  the  Atlantic  cliffs ;  after  which  he  went  up 
to  Burrough,  and  laughed  over  the  whole  matter  with  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"  I  am  but  a  burgher,  Mrs.  Leigh,  and  you  a  lady  of  blood; 
but  I  am  too  proud  to  let  any  man  say  that  Simon  Salterne 
threw  his  daughter  at  your  son's  head ; — no  ;  not  if  you  were 
an  empress  !" 

"  And  to  speak  truth,  Mr.  Salterne,  there  are  young  gallants 
enough  in  the  country  quarrelling  about  her  pretty  face  every 
day,  without  making  her  a  tourney-queen  to  tilt  about." 

Which  was  very  true ;  for  during  the  three  years  of  Amyas's 
absence,  Rose  Salterne  had  grown  into  so  beautiful  a  girl  of 
eighteen,  that  half  North  Devon  was  mad  about  the  "  Rose  of 
Torridge,"  as  she  was  called  ;  and  there  was  not  a  young  gallant 
for  ten  miles  round  (not  to  speak  of  her  father's  clerks  and 
'prentices,  who  moped  about  after  her  like  so  many  Malvolios, 
and  treasured  up  the  very  parings  of  her  nails)  who  would  not 
have  gone  to  Jerusalem  to  win  her.  So  that  all  along  the  vales 
of  Torridge  and  of  Taw,  and  even  away  to  Clovelly  (for  young 
Mr.  Gary  was  one  of  the  sick),  not  a  gay  bachelor  but  was 
frowning  on  his  fellows,  and  vieing  with  them  in  the  fashion  of 
his  clothes,  the  set  of  his  ruffs,  the  harness  of  his  horse,  the 
carriage  of  his  hawks,  the  pattern  of  his  sword-hilt ;  and  those 
were  golden  days  for  all  tailors  and  armourers,  from  Exmoor  to 
Okehampton  town.  But  of  all  those  foolish  young  lads  not  one 
would  speak  to  the  other,  either  out  hunting,  or  at  the  archery 
butts,  or  in  the  tilt-yard  ;  and  my  Lady  Bath  (who  confessed 


CHAP.  II.]  THE  FIRST  TIME.  47 

that  there  was  no  use  in  bringing  out  her  daughters  where 
Rose  Salterne  was  in  the  way)  prophesied  in  her  classical 
fashion  that  Rose's  wedding  bid  fair  to  be  a  very  bridal  of 
Atalanta,  and  feast  of  the  Lapithae  ;  and  poor  Mr.  Will  Gary 
(who  always  blurted  out  the  truth),  when  old  Salterne  once 
asked  him  angrily  in  Bideford  Market,  "  What  a  plague  business 
had  he  making  sheep's  eyes  at  his  daughter  1"  broke  out  before 
all  bystanders,  "  And  what  a  plague  business  had  you,  old  boy, 
to  throw  such  an  apple  of  discord  into  our  merry  meetings  here- 
abouts ]  If  you  choose  to  have  such  a  daughter,  you  must  take 
the  consequences,  and  be  hanged  to  you."  To  which  Mr. 
Salterne  answered  with  some  truth,  "  That  she  was  none  of  his 
choosing,  nor  of  Mr.  Gary's  neither."  And  so  the  dor  being 
given,  the  belligerents  parted  laughing,  but  the  war  remained 
in  statu  quo ;  and  not  a  week  passed  but,  by  mysterious  hands, 
some  nosegay,  or  languishing  sonnet,  was  conveyed  into  The 
Rose's  chamber,  all  which  she  stowed  away,  with  the  simplicity 
of  a  country  girl,  finding  it  mighty  pleasant ;  and  took  all  com- 
pliments quietly  enough,  probably  because,  on  the  authority  of 
her  mirror,  she  considered  them  no  more  than  her  due. 

And  now,  to  add  to  the  general  confusion,  home  was  come 
young  Amyas  Leigh,  more  desperately  in  love  with  her  than 
ever.  For,  as  is  the  way  with  sailors  (who  after  all  are  the 
truest  lovers,  as  they  are  the  finest  fellows,  God  bless  them, 
upon  earth),  his  lonely  ship-watches  had  been  spent  in  imprint- 
ing on  his  imagination,  month  after  month,  year  after  year, 
every  feature  and  gesture  and  tone  of  the  fair  lass  whom  he  had 
left  behind  him ;  and  that  all  the  more  intensely,  because,  be- 
side his  mother,  he  had  no  one  else  to  think  of,  and  was  as  pure 
as  the  day  he  was  born,  having  been  trained  as  many  a  brave 
young  man  was  then,  to  look  upon  profligacy  not  as  a  proof  of 
manhood,  but  as  what  the  old  Germans,  and  those  Gortyneans 
who  crowned  the  offender  with  wool,  knew  it  to  be,  a  cowardly 
and  effeminate  sin. 


48  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [OIIAP.  III. 


CHAPTER    III. 

OF    TWO    GENTLEMEN    OF    WALES,    AND    HOW    THEY    HUNTED 
WITH  THE  HOUNDS,  AND  YET  RAN  WITH  THE  DEER. 

"I  know  that  Deformed;  he  has  been  a  vile  thief  this  seven  year;  he  goes 
up  and  down  like  a  gentleman  :  I  remember  his  name." — Much  Ado 
about  Nothing. 

AMY  AS  slept  that  night  a  tired  and  yet  a  troubled  sleep ;  and 
his  mother  and  Frank,  as  they  bent  over  his  pillow,  could  see 
that  his  brain  was  busy  with  many  dreams. 

And  no  wonder;  for  over  and  above  all  the  excitement  of  the 
day,  the  recollection  of  John  Oxenham  had  taken  strange  possession 
of  his  mind;  and  all  that  evening,  as  he  sat  in  the  bay-windowed 
room  where  he  had  seen  him  last,  Amyas  was  recalling  to  him- 
self every  look  and  gesture  of  the  lost  adventurer,  and  wonder- 
ing at  himself  for  so  doing,  till  he  retired  to  sleep,  only  to  renew 
the  fancy  in  his  dreams.  At  last  he  found  himself,  he  knew 
not  how,  sailing  westward  ever,  up  the  wake  of  the  setting  sun, 
in  chase  of  a  tiny  sail  which  was  John  Oxenham's.  Upon  him 
was  a  painful  sense  that,  unless  he  came  up  with  her  in  time, 
something  fearful  would  come  to  pass  :  but  the  ship  would  not 
sail.  All  around  floated  the  sargasso  beds,  clogging  her  bows 
with  their  long  snaky  coils  of  weed  ;  and  still  he  tried  to  sail, 
and  tried  to  fancy  that  he  was  sailing,  till  the  sun  went  down 
and  all  was  utter  dark.  And  then  the  moon  arose,  and  in  a 
moment  John  Oxenham's  ship  was  close  aboard  ;  her  sails  were 
torn  and  fluttering ;  the  pitch  was  streaming  from  her  sides ; 
her  bulwarks  were  rotting  to  decay.  And  what  was  that  line 
of  dark  objects  dangling  along  the  mainyard  ? — A  line  of  hanged 
men !  And,  horror  of  horrors,  from  the  yard-arm  close  above 
him,  John  Oxenham's  corpse  looked  down  with  grave-light  eyes, 
and  beckoned  and  pointed,  as  if  to  show  him  his  way,  and  strove 
to  speak,  and  could  not,  and  pointed  still,  not  forward,  but  back 
along  their  course.  And  when  Amyas  looked  back,  behold,  behind 
him  was  the  snow  range  of  the  Andes  glittering  in  the  moon,  and 
he  knew  that  he  was  in  the  South  Seas  once  more,  and  that  all 
America  was  between  him  and  home.  And  still  the  corpse  kept 
pointing  back,  and  back,  and  looking  at  him  with  yearning  eyes 
of  agony,  and  lips  which  longed  to  tell  some  awful  secret ;  till 
he  sprang  up,  and  woke  with  a  shout  of  terror,  and  found  him- 


ciixr.  in.]  OF  WALES.  49 

self  lying  in  the  little  coved  chamber  in  dear  old  Burrough, 
with  the  grey  autumn  morning  already  stealing  in. 

Feverish  and  excited,  he  tried  in  vain  to  sleep  again ;  and 
after  an  hour's  tossing,  rose  and  dressed,  and  started  for  a  bathe 
on  his  beloved  old  pebble  ridge.  As  he  passed  his  mother's 
door,  he  could  not  help  looking  in.  The  dim  light  of  morning 
showed  him  the  bed ;  but  its  pillow  had  not  been  pressed  that 
night.  His  mother,  in  her  long  white  night-dress,  was  kneeling 
at  the  other  end  of  the  chamber  at  her  prie-dieu,  absorbed  in 
devotion.  Gently  he  slipped  in  without  a  word,  and  knelt 
down  at  her  side.  She  turned,  smiled,  passed  her  arm  around 
him,  and  went  on  silently  with  her  prayers.  Why  not  1  They 
were  for  him,  and  he  knew  it,  and  prayed  also ;  and  his  prayers 
were  for  her,  and  for  poor  lost  John  Oxenham,  and  all  his 
vanished  crew. 

At  last  she  rose,  and  standing  above  him,  parted  the  yellow 
locks  from  off  his  brow,  and  looked  long  and  lovingly  into  his 
face.  There  was  nothing  to  be  spoken,  for  there  was  nothing 
to  be  concealed  between  these  two  souls  as  clear  as  glass.  Each 
knew  all  which  the  other  meant ;  each  knew  that  its  own 
thoughts  were  known.  At  last  the  mutual  gaze  was  over ;  she 
stooped  and  kissed  him  on  the  brow,  and  was  in  the  act  to  turn 
away,  as  a  tear  dropped  on  his  forehead.  Her  little  bare  feet 
were  peeping  out  from  under  her  dress.  He  bent  down  and 
kissed  them  again  and  again ;  and  then  looking  up,  as  if  to  ex- 
cuse himself, — 

"You  have  such  pretty  feet,  mother  !" 

Instantly,  with  a  woman's  instinct,  she  had  hidden  them. 
She  had  been  a  beauty  once,  as  I  said ;  and  though  her  hair 
was  grey,  and  her  roses  had  faded  long  ago,  she  was  beautiful 
still,  in  all  eyes  which  saw  deeper  than  the  mere  outward  red 
and  white. 

"  Your  dear  father  used  to  say  so  thirty  years  ago." 

"And  I  say  so  still:  you  always  were  beautiful;  you  are 
beautiful  now." 

"  What  is  that  to  you,  silly  boy  ?  Will  you  play  the  lover 
with  an  old  mother  1  Go  and  take  your  walk,  and  think  of 
younger  ladies,  if  you  can  find  any  worthy  of  you." 

And  so  the  son  went  forth,  and  the  mother  returned  to  her 
prayers. 

He  walked  down  to  the  pebble  ridge,  where  the  surges  of 
the  bay  have  defeated  their  own  fury,  by  rolling  up  in  the  course 
of  ages  a  rampart  of  grey  boulder-stones,  some  two  miles  long, 

E 


50  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  in. 

as  cunningly  curved,  and  smoothed,  and  fitted,  as  if  the  work 
had  been  done  by  human  hands,  which  protects  from  the  high 
tides  of  spring  and  autumn  a  fertile  sheet  of  smooth,  alluvial 
turf.  Sniffing  the  keen  salt  air  like  a  young  sea-dog,  he  stripped 
and  plunged  into  the  breakers,  and  dived,  and  rolled,  and  tossed 
about  the  foam  with  stalwart  arms,  till  he  heard  himself  hailed 
from  off  the  shore,  and  looking  up,  saw  standing  on  the  top  of 
the  rampart  the  tall  figure  of  his  cousin  Eustace. 

Amyas  was  half-disappointed  at  his  coming ;  for,  love-lorn 
rascal,  he  had  been  dreaming  all  the  way  thither  of  Rose  Sal- 
terne,  and  had  no  wish  for  a  companion  who  would  prevent  his 
dreaming  of  her  all  the  way  back.  Nevertheless,  not  having 
seen  Eustace  for  three  years,  it  was  but  civil  to  scramble  out 
and  dress,  while  his  cousin  walked  up  and  down  upon  the  turf 
inside. 

Eustace  Leigh  was  the  son  of  a  younger  brother  of  Leigh  of 
Burrough,  who  had  more  or  less  cut  himself  off  from  his  family, 
and  indeed  from  his  countrymen,  by  remaining  a  Papist.  True, 
though  born  a  Papist,  he  had  not  always  been  one ;  for,  like 
many  of  the  gentry,  he  had  become  a  Protestant  under  Edward 
the  Sixth,  and  then  a  Papist  again  under  Mary.  But,  to  his 
honour  be  it  said,  at  that  point  he  had  stopped,  having  too 
much  honesty  to  turn  Protestant  a  second  time,  as  hundreds  did, 
at  Elizabeth's  accession.  So  a  Papist  he  remained,  living  out 
of  the  way  of  the  world  in  a  great,  rambling,  dark  house,  still 
called  "  Chapel,"  on  the  Atlantic  cliffs,  in  Moorwinstow  parish, 
not  far  from  Sir  Richard  Grenvile's  house  of  Stow.  The  penal 
laws  never  troubled  him ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  they  never 
troubled  any  one  who  did  not  make  conspiracy  and  rebellion  an 
integral  doctrine  of  his  religious  creed ;  and  next,  they  seldom 
troubled  even  them,  unless,  fired  with  the  glory  of  martyrdom, 
they  bullied  the  long-suffering  of  Elizabeth  and  her  council  into 
giving  them  their  deserts,  and,  like  poor  Father  Southwell  in 
after  years,  insisted  on  being  hanged,  whether  Burleigh  liked  or 
not.  Moreover,  in  such  a  no-man's-land  and  end-of-all-the-earth 
was  that  old  house  at  Moorwinstow,  that  a  dozen  conspiracies 
might  have  been  hatched  there  without  any  one  hearing  of  it ; 
and  Jesuits  and  seminary  priests  skulked  in  and  out  all  the  year 
round,  unquestioned  though  unblest;  and  found  a  sort  of  piquant 
pleasure,  like  naughty  boys  who  have  crept  into  the  store-closet, 
in  living  in  mysterious  little  dens  in  a  lonely  turret,  and  going 
up  through  a  trap-door  to  celebrate  mass  in  a  secret  chamber  in 
the  roof,  where  they  were  allowed  by  the  powers  that  were  to 


CHAP.  III.]  OF  WALKS.  51 

play  as  much  as  they  chose  at  persecuted  saints,  and  preach 
about  hiding  in  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth.  For  once,  when 
the  zealous  parson  of  Moorwinstow,  having  discovered  (what 
everybody  knew  already)  the  existence  of  "  mass  priests  and 
their  idolatry"  at  Chapel  House,  made  formal  complaint  thereof 
to  Sir  Richard,  and  called  on  him,  as  the  nearest  justice  of  the 
peace,  to  put  in  force  the  Act  of  the  fourteenth  of  Elizabeth, 
that  worthy  knight  only  rated  him  soundly  for  a  fantastical 
Puritan,  and  bade  him  mind  his  own  business,  if  he  wished  not 
to  make  the  place  too  hot  for  him ;  whereon  (for  the  temporal 
authorities,  happily  for  the  peace  of  England,  kept  in  those  days 
a  somewhat  tight  hand  upon  the  spiritual  ones)  the  worthy 
parson  subsided, — for,  after  all,  Mr.  Thomas  Leigh  paid  his 
tithes  regularly  enough, — and  was  content,  as  he  expressed  it, 
to  bow  his  head  in  the  house  of  Rimmon  like  Naaman  of  old, 
by  eating  Mr.  Leigh's  dinners  as  often  as  he  was  invited,  and 
ignoring  the  vocation  of  old  Father  Francis,  who  sat  opposite  to 
him,  dressed  as  a  layman,  and  calling  himself  the  young  gentle- 
man's pedagogue. 

But  the  said  birds  of  ill-omen  had  a  very  considerable  lien 
on  the  conscience  of  poor  Mr.  Thomas  Leigh,  the  father  of 
Eustace,  in  the  form  of  certain  lands  once  belonging  to  the 
Abbey  of  Hartland.  He  more  than  half  believed  that  he  should 
be  lost  for  holding  those  lands;  but  he  did  not  believe  it  wholly, 
and,  therefore,  he  did  not  give  them  up ;  which  was  the  case, 
as  poor  Mary  Tudor  found  to  her  sorrow,  with  most  of  her 
"  Catholic "  subjects,  whose  consciences,  while  they  compelled 
them  to  return  to  the  only  safe  fold  of  Mother  Church  (extrdt, 
qitam  nulla  saliis),  by  no  means  compelled  them  to  disgorge  the 
wealth  of  which  they  had  plundered  that  only  hope  of  their  sal- 
vation. Most  of  them,  however,  like  poor  Tom  Leigh,  felt  the 
abbey  rents  burn  in  their  purses ;  and,  as  John  Bull  generally 
does  in  a  difficulty,  compromised  the  matter  by  a  second  folly 
(as  if  two  wrong  things  made  one  right  one),  and  petted  foreign 
priests,  and  listened,  or  pretended  not  to  listen,  to  their  plot- 
tings  and  their  practisings  ;  and  gave  up  a  son  here,  and  a  son 
there,  as  a  sort  of  a  sin-offering  and  scapegoat,  to  be  carried  off 
to  Douay,  or  Rheims,  or  Rome,  and  trained  as  a  seminary  priest; 
in  plain  English,  to  be  taught  the  science  of  villainy,  on  the 
motive  of  superstition.  One  of  such  hapless  scapegoats,  and 
children  who  had  been  cast  into  the  fire  to  Moloch,  was  Eustace 
Leigh,  whom  his  father  had  sent,  giving  the  fruit  of  his  body 
for  the  sin  of  his  soul,  to  be  made  a  liar  of  at  Rheims. 


52  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

And  a  very  fair  liar  he  had  become.  Not  that  the  lad  was 
a  bad  fellow  at  heart ;  but  he  had  been  chosen  by  the  harpies 
at  home,  on  account  of  his  "peculiar  vocation;"  in  plain  English, 
because  the  wily  priests  had  seen  in  him  certain  capacities  of 
vague  hysterical  fear  of  the  unseen  (the  religious  sentiment,  we 
call  it  now-a-days),  and  with  them  that  tendency  to  be  a  rogue, 
which  superstitious  men  always  have.  He  was  now  a  tall, 
handsome,  light -complexioned  man,  with  a  huge  upright  fore- 
head, a  very  small  mouth,  and  a  dry  and  set  expression  of  face, 
which  was  always  trying  to  get  free,  or  rather  to  seem  free,  and 
indulge  in  smiles  and  dimples  which  were  proper ;  for  one  ought 
to  have  Christian  love,  and  if  one  had  love  one  ought  to  be 
cheerful,  and  when  people  were  cheerful  they  smiled ;  and  there- 
fore he  would  smile,  and  tried  to  do  so;  but  his  charity  prepense 
looked  no  more  alluring  than  malice  prepense  would  have  done; 
and,  had  he  not  been  really  a  handsome  fellow,  many  a  woman 
who  raved  about  his  sweetness  would  have  likened  his  frankness 
to  that  of  a  skeleton  dancing  in  fetters,  and  his  smiles  to  the 
grins  thereof. 

He  had  returned  to  England  about  a  month  before,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  proclamation  which  had  been  set  forth  for  that  pur- 
pose (and  certainly  not  before  it  was  needed),  that,  "  whosoever 
had  children,  wards,  etc.,  in  the  parts  beyond  the  seas,  should 
send  in  their  names  to  the  ordinary,  and  within  four  months 
call  them  home  again."  So  Eustace  was  now  staying  with  his 
father  at  Chapel,  having,  nevertheless,  his  private  matters  to 
transact  on  behalf  of  the  virtuous  society  by  whom  he  had  been 
brought  up ;  one  of  which  private  matters  had  brought  him  to 
Bideford  the  night  before. 

So  he  sat  down  beside  Amyas  on  the  pebbles,  and  looked  at 
him  all  over  out  of  the  corners  of  his  eyes  very  gently,  as  if  he 
did  not  wish  to  hurt  him,  or  even  the  flies  on  his  back ;  and 
Amyas  faced  right  round,  and  looked  him  full  in  the  face,  with 
the  heartiest  of  smiles,  and  held  out  a  lion's  paw,  which  Eustace 
took  rapturously,  and  a  great  shaking  of  hands  ensued ;  Amyas 
gripping  with  a  great  round  fist,  and  a  quiet  quiver  thereof,  as 
much  as  to  say,  "  I  am  glad  to  see  you  ;"  and  Eustace  pinching 
hard  with  quite  straight  fingers,  and  sawing  the  air  violently  up 
and  down,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  Don't  you  see  how  glad  I  am  to 
see  you  ?"  A  very  different  greeting  from  the  former. 

"Hold  hard,  old  lad,"  said  Amyas,  "before  you  break  my 
elbow.  And  where  do  you  come  from  V 

"  From  going  to  and  fro  in  the  earth,  and  from  walking  up 


CHAP.  III.]  OF  WALES.  53 

and  down  in  it,"  said  he,  with  a  little  smile  and  nod  of  mys- 
terious self-importance. 

"Like  the  devil,  eh?  Well,  every  man  has  his  pattern. 
How  is  my  uncle?" 

Now,  if  there  was  one  man  on  earth  above  another,  of  whom 
Eustace  Leigh  stood  in  dread,  it  was  his  cousin  Amyas.  In  the 
first  place,  he  knew  Amyas  could  have  killed  him  with  a  blow ; 
and  there  are  natures,  who,  instead  of  rejoicing  in  the  strength 
of  men  of  greater  prowess  than  themselves,  look  at  such  with 
irritation,  dread,  at  last,  spite ;  expecting,  perhaps,  that  the 
stronger  will  do  to  them  what  they  feel  they  might  have  done 
in  his  place.  Every  one,  perhaps,  has  the  same  envious, 
cowardly  devil  haunting  about  his  heart ;  but  the  brave  men, 
though  they  be  very  sparrows,  kick  him  out ;  the  cowards  keep 
him,  and  foster  him ;  and  so  did  poor  Eustace  Leigh. 

Next,  he  could  not  help  feeling  that  Amyas  despised  him. 
They  had  not  met  for  three  years ;  but  before  Amyas  went, 
Eustace  never  could  argue  with  him ;  simply  because  Amyas 
treated  him  as  beneath  argument.  No  doubt  he  was  often  rude 
and  unfair  enough  ;  but  the  whole  mass  of  questions  concerning 
the  unseen  world,  which  the  priests  had  stimulated  in  his 
cousin's  mind  into  an  unhealthy  fungus  crop,  were  to  Amyas 
simply,  as  he  expressed  it,  "wind  and  moonshine;"  and  he 
treated  his  cousin  as  a  sort  of  harmless  lunatic,  and,  as  they 
say  in  Devon,  "half-baked."  And  Eustace  knew  it;  and 
knew,  too,  that  his  cousin  did  him  an  injustice.  "  He  used 
to  undervalue  me,"  said  he  to  himself;  "let  us  see  whether  he 
does  not  find  me  a  match  for  him  now."  And  then  went  off 
into  an  agony  of  secret  contrition  for  his  self-seeking  and  his 
forgetting  that  "  the  glory  of  God,  and  not  his  own  exaltation," 
was  the  object  of  his  existence. 

There,  dear  readers,  Ex  pede  Herculem ;  I  cannot  tire 
myself  or  you  (especially  in  this  book)  with  any  wire-drawn 
soul-dissections.  I  have  tried  to  hint  to  you  two  opposite  sorts 
of  men.  The  one  trying  to  be  good  with  all  his  might  and 
main,  according  to  certain  approved  methods  and  rules,  which 
he  has  got  by  heart ;  and  like  a  weak  oarsman,  feeling  and 
fingering  his  spiritual  muscles  over  all  day,  to  see  if  they  are 
growing.  The  other,  not  even  knowing  whether  he  is  good  or 
not,  but  just  doing  the  right  thing  without  thinking  about  it, 
as  simply  as  a  little  child,  because  the  Spirit  of  God  is  with 
him.  If  you  cannot  see  the  great  gulf  fixed  between  the  two, 
I  trust  that  you  will  discover  it  some  day. 


54  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

But  in  justice  be  it  said,  all  this  came  upon  Eustace,  not 
because  he  was  a  Romanist,  but  because  he  was  educated  by 
the  Jesuits.  Had  he  been  saved  from  them,  he  might  have 
lived  and  died  as  simple  and  honest  a  gentleman  as  his  brothers, 
who  turned  out  like  true  Englishmen  (as  did  all  the  Romish 
laity)  to  face  the  great  Armada,  and  one  of  whom  was  fighting 
at  that  very  minute  under  St.  Leger  in  Ireland,  and  as  brave 
and  loyal  a  soldier  as  those  Roman  Catholics  whose  noble 
blood  has  stained  every  Crimsean  battle-field ;  but  his  fate  was 
appointed  otherwise  ;  and  the  Upas-shadow  which  has  blighted 
the  whole  Romish  Church,  blighted  him  also. 

"Ah,  my  dearest  cousin  !"  said  Eustace,  "how  disappointed 
I  was  this  morning  at  finding  I  had  arrived  just  a  day  too  late 
to  witness  your  triumph  !  But  I  hastened  to  your  home  as 
soon  as  I  could,  and  learning  from  your  mother  that  I  should 
find  you  here,  hurried  down  to  bid  you  welcome  again  to  Devon." 

"Well,  old  lad,  it  does  look  very  natural  to  see  you.  I 
often  used  to  think  of  you  walking  the  deck  o'  nights.  Uncle 
and  the  girls  are  all  right,  then  ?  But  is  the  old  pony  dead 
yet  ?  And  how's  Dick  the  smith,  and  Nancy  1  Grown  a  fine 
maid  by  now,  I  warrant.  'Slid,  it  seems  half  a  life  that  I've 
been  away." 

"And  you  really  thought  of  your  poor  cousin1?  Be  sure 
that  he,  too,  thought  of  you,  and  offered  up  nightly  his  weak 
prayers  for  your  safety  (doubtless,  not  without  avail)  to  those 
saints,  to  whom  would  that  you — 

"  Halt  there,  coz.  If  they  are  half  as  good  fellows  as  you 
und  I  take  them  for,  they'll  help  me  without  asking." 

"  They  have  helped  you,  Amyas." 

"  Maybe ;  I'd  have  done  as  much,  I'm  sure,  for  them,  if 
I'd  been  in  their  place." 

"  And  do  you  not  feel,  then,  that  you  owe  a  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  them ;  and,  above  all,  to  her,  whose  intercessions  have, 
I  doubt  not,  availed  for  your  preservation  1  Her,  the  star  of 
the  sea,  the  all-compassionate  guide  of  the  mariner?" 

"  Humph  !"  said  Amyas.     "  Here's  Frank ;  let  him  answer." 

And,  as  he  spoke,  up  came  Frank,  and  after  due  greetings, 
sat  down  beside  them  on  the  ridge. 

"  I  say,  brother,  here's  Eustace  trying  already  to  convert 
me ;  and  telling  me  that  I  owe  all  my  luck  to  the  Blessed 
Virgin's  prayers  for  me." 

"It  may  be  so,"  said  Frank;  "at  least  you  owe  it  to  the 
prayers  of  that  most  pure  and  peerless  virgin,  by  whose  com- 


CHAP.  III.]  OF  WALES.  55 

mands  you  sailed;  the  sweet  incense  of  whose  orisons  has 
gone  up  for  you  daily,  and  for  whose  sake  you  were  preserved 
from  flood  and  foe,  that  you  might  spread  the  fame  and  advance 
the  power  of  the  spotless  championess  of  truth,  and  right,  and 
freedom, — Elizabeth,  your  queen." 

Amyas  answered  this  rhapsody,  which  would  have  been  then 
both  fashionable  and  sincere,  by  a  loyal  chuckle.  Eustace  smiled 
meekly  :  but  answered  somewhat  venomously  nevertheless, 

"I,  at  least,  am  certain  that  I  speak  the  truth,  when  I  call 
my  patroness  a  virgin  undefiled." 

Both  the  brothers'  brows  clouded  at  once.  Amyas,  as  he 
lay  on  his  back  on  the  pebbles,  said  quietly  to  the  gulls  over 
his  head, 

"  I  wonder  what  the  Frenchman,  whose  head  I  cut  off  at 
the  Azores,  thinks  by  now  about  all  that." 

"  Cut  off  a  Frenchman's  head  V  said  Frank. 

"  Yes,  faith ;  and  so  fleshed  my  maiden  sword.  I'll  tell 
you.  It  was  in  some  tavern ;  I  and  George  Drake  had  gone 
in,  and  there  sat  this  Frenchman,  with  his  sword  on  the  table, 
ready  for  a  quarrel  (I  found  afterwards  he  was  a  noted  bully), 
and  begins  with  us  loudly  enough  about  this  and  that ;  but, 
after  awhile,  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil,  what  does  he  vent 
but  a  dozen  slanders  against  her  majesty's  honour,  one  atop  of 
the  other.  I  was  ashamed  to  hear  them,  and  I  should  be  more 
ashamed  to  repeat  them." 

"  I  have  heard  enough  of  such,"  said  Frank.  "  They  come 
mostly  through  lewd  rascals  about  the  French  ambassador,  who 
have  been  bred  (God  help  them)  among  the  filthy  vices  of  that 
Medicean  Court,  in  which  the  Queen  of  Scots  had  her  schooling ; 
and  can  only  perceive  in  a  virtuous  freedom,  a  cloke  for  licen- 
tiousness like  their  own.  Let  the  curs  bark ;  Honi  soit  qui 
mal  y  pense  is  our  motto,  and  shall  be  for  ever." 

"  But  I  didn't  let  the  cur  bark  ;  for  I  took  himt  by  the  ears, 
to  show  him  out  into  the  street.  Whereon  he  got  to  his  sword, 
and  I  to  mine ;  and  a  very  near  chance  I  had  of  never  bathing 
on  the  pebble-ridge  more;  for  the  fellow  did  not  fight  with 
edge  and  buckler,  like  a  Christian,  but  had  some  newfangled 
French  devil's  device  of  scryming  and  foining  with  his  point, 
ha'ing  and  stamping,  and  tracing  at  me,  that  I  expected  to  be 
full  of  eyelet  holes  ere  I  could  close  with  him." 

"Thank  God  that  you  are  safe,  then  !"  said  Frank.  "I 
know  that  play  well  enough,  and  dangerous  enough  it  is." 

"  Of  course  you  know  it ;  but  I  didn't,  more's  the  pity." 


56  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

"Well,  I'll  teach  it  thee,  lad,  as  well  as  Rowland  Yorke 
himself, 

'  Thy  fincture,  carricade,  and  sly  passata, 
Thy  stramazon,  and  resolute  stoccata, 
Wiping  maudritta,  closing  embrocata, 
And  all  the  cant  of  the  honourable  fencing  mystery.'" 

"  Rowland  Yorke  1    Who's  he,  then  1" 

"A  very  roystering  rascal,  who  is  making  good  profit  in 
London  just  now  by  teaching  this  very  art  of  fence ;  and  is  as 
likely  to  have  his  mortal  thread  dipt  in  a  tavern  brawl,  as  thy 
Frenchman.  But  how  did  you  escape  his  pinking  iron  ?" 

"  How  1  Had  it  through  my  left  arm  before  I  could  look 
round ;  and  at  that  I  got  mad,  and  leapt  upon  him,  and  caught 
him  by  the  wrist,  and  then  had  a  fair  side-blow ;  and,  as  for- 
tune would  have  it,  off  tumbled  his  head  on  to  the  table,  and 
there  was  an  end  of  his  slanders." 

"So  perish  all  her  enemies!"  said  Frank;  and  Eustace, 
who  had  been  trying  not  to  listen,  rose  and  said, 

"I  trust  that  you  do  not  number  me  among  them"?" 

"As  you  speak,  I  do,  coz,"  said  Frank.  "But  for  your 
own  sake,  let  me  advise  you  to  put  faith  in  the  true  report  of 
those  who  have  daily  experience  of  their  mistress's  excellent 
virtue,  as  they  have  of  the  sun's  shining,  and  of  the  earth's 
bringing  forth  fruit,  and  not  in  the  tattle  of  a  few  cowardly 
back-stair  rogues,  who  wish  to  curry  favour  with  the  Guises. 
Come,  we  will  say  no  more.  Walk  round  with  us  by  Apple- 
dore,  and  then  home  to  breakfast." 

But  Eustace  declined,  having  immediate  business,  he  said, 
in  Northam  town,  and  then  in  Bideford ;  and  so  left  them  to 
lounge  for  another  half-hour  on  the  beach,  and  then  walk  across 
the  smooth  sheet  of  turf  to  the  little  white  fishing  village,  which 
stands  some  two  miles  above  the  bar,  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Torridge  and  the  Taw. 

Now  it  came  to  pass,  that  Eustace  Leigh,  as  we  have  seen, 
told  his  cousins  that  he  was  going  to  Northam :  but  he  did  not 
tell  them  that  his  point  was  really  the  same  as  their  own, 
namely,  Appledore ;  and,  therefore,  after  having  satisfied  his 
conscience  by  going  as  far  as  the  very  nearest  house  in  Northam 
village,  he  struck  away  sharp  to  the  left  across  the  fields, 
repeating  I  know  not  what  to  the  Blessed  Virgin  all  the  way ; 
whereby  he  went  several  miles  out  of  his  road ;  and  also,  as  is 
the  wont  of  crooked  spirits,  Jesuits  especially  (as  three  centuries 
sufficiently  testify),  only  outwitted  himself.  For  his  cousins 


CHAP.  HI.]  OF  WALES.  57 

going  merrily,  like  honest  men,  along  the  straight  road  across 
the  turf,  arrived  in  Appledore,  opposite  the  little  "Mariner's 
Rest"  Inn,  just  in  time  to  see  what  Eustace  had  taken  so 
Hindi  trouble  to  hide  from  them,  namely,  four  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Leigh's  horses  standing  at  the  door,  held  by  his  groom,  saddles 
and  mail-bags  on  back,  and  mounting  three  of  them,  Eustace 
Leigh  and  two  strange  gentlemen. 

"There's  one  lie  already  this  morning,"  growled  Amyas ; 
"he  told  us  he  was  going  to  Northam." 

"  And  we  do  not  know  that  he  has  not  been  there,"  blandly 
suggested  Frank. 

"  Why,  you  are  as  bad  a  Jesuit  as  he,  to  help  him  out  with 
such  a  fetch." 

"  He  may  have  changed  his  mind." 

"  Bless  your  pure  imagination,  my  sweet  boy,"  said  Amyas, 
laying  his  great  hand  on  Frank's  head,  and  mimicking  his 
mother's  manner.  "  I  say,  dear  Frank,  let's  step  into  this 
shop  and  buy  a  pennyworth  of  whipcord." 

"What  do  you  want  with  whipcord,  man?" 

"  To  spin  my  top,  to  be  sure." 

"  Top  ?  how  long  hast  had  a  top  ?" 

"  I'll  buy  one,  then,  and  save  my  conscience ;  but  the 
upshot  of  this  sport  I  must  see.  Why  may  not  I  have  an 
excuse  ready  made  as  well  as  Master  Eustace  1" 

So  saying,  he  pulled  Frank  into  the  little  shop,  unobserved 
by  the  party  at  the  inn-door. 

"  What  strange  cattle  has  he  been  importing  now  1  Look 
at  that  three-legged  fellow,  trying  to  get  aloft  on  the  wrong 
side.  How  he  claws  at  his  horse's  ribs,  like  a  cat  scratching 
an  elder  stem  !" 

The  three-legged  man  was  a  tall,  meek-looking  person,  who 
had  bedizened  himself  with  gorgeous  garments,  a  great  feather, 
and  a  sword  so  long  and  broad,  that  it  differed  little  in  size 
from  the  very  thin  and  stiff  shanks  between  which  it  wandered 
uncomfortably. 

"  Young  David  in  Saul's  weapons,"  said  Frank.  "  He  had 
better  not  go  in  them,  for  he  certainly  has  not  proved  them." 

"  Look,  if  his  third  leg  is  not  turned  into  a  tail !  Why 
does  not  some  one  in  charity  haul  in  half-a-yard  of  his  belt  for 
him  V 

It  was  too  true ;  the  sword,  after  being  kicked  out  three  or 
four  times  from  its  uncomfortable  post  between  his  legs,  had 
returned  unconquered  ;  and  the  hilt  getting  a  little  too  far  back 


58  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

by  reason  of  the  too  great  length  of  the  belt,  the  weapon  took 
up  its  post  triumphantly  behind,  standing  out  point  in  air,  a 
tail  confest,  amid  the  tittering  of  the  ostlers,  and  the  cheers  of 
the  sailors. 

At  last  the  poor  man,  by  dint  of  a  chair,  was  mounted 
safely,  while  his  fellow-stranger,  a  burly,  coarse-looking  man, 
equally  gay,  and  rather  more  handy,  made  so  fierce  a  rush  at 
his  saddle,  that,  like  "  vaulting  ambition  who  o'erieaps  his  selle," 
he  "fell  on  t'other  side:"  or  would  have  fallen,  had  he  not 
been  brought  up  short  by  the  shoulders  of  the  ostler  at  his  off- 
stirrup.  In  which  shock  off  came  hat  and  feather. 

"Pardie,  the  bulldog-faced  one  is  a  fighting  man.  Dost 
see,  Frank?  he  has  had  his  head  broken." 

"That  scar  came  not,  my  son,  but  by  a  pair  of  most 
Catholic  and  apostolic  scissors.  My  gentle  buzzard,  that  is  a 
priest's  tonsure." 

"  Hang  the  dog  !  0,  that  the  sailors  may  but  see  it,  and 
put  him  over  the  quay  head.  I've  a  half  mind  to  go  and  do 
it  myself." 

"  My  dear  Amyas,"  said  Frank,  laying  two  fingers  on  his 
arm,  "  these  men,  whosoever  they  are,  are  the  guests  of  our 
uncle,  and  therefore  the  guests  of  our  family.  Ham  gained 
little  by  publishing  Noah's  shame ;  neither  shall  we,  by  pub- 
lishing our  uncle's." 

"  Murrain  on  you,  old  Franky,  you  never  let  a  man  speak 
his  mind,  and  shame  the  devil." 

"  I  have  lived  long  enough  in  courts,  old  Amyas,  without  a 
murrain  on  you,  to  have  found  out  first,  that  it  is  not  so  easy 
to  shame  the  devil ;  and  secondly,  that  it  is  better  to  outwit 
him ;  and  the  only  way  to  do  that,  sweet  chuck,  is  very  often 
not  to  speak  your  mind  at  all.  We  will  go  down  and  visit 
them  at  Chapel  in  a  day  or  two,  and  see  if  we  cannot  serve 
these  reynards  as  the  badger  did  the  fox,  when  he  found  him 
in  his  hole,  and  could  not  get  him  out  by  evil  savours." 

"  How  then  V 

"  Stuck  a  sweet  nosegay  in  the  door,  which  turned  Reynard's 
stomach  at  once ;  and  so  overcame  evil  with  good." 

"  Well,  thou  art  too  good  for  this  world,  that's  certain ;  so 
we  will  go  home  to  breakfast.  Those  rogues  are  out  of  sight 
by  now." 

Nevertheless,  Amyas  was  not  proof  against  the  temptation 
of  going  over  to  the  inn-door,  and  asking  who  were  the  gentle- 
men who  went  with  Mr.  Leigh. 


CHAP,  in.]  OF  WALES.  59 

"Gentlemen  of  Wales,"  said  the  ostler,  "who  came  last 
night  in  a  pinnace  from  Milford-haven,  and  their  names,  Mr. 
Morgan  Evans  and  Mr.  Evan  Morgans."' 

"  Mr.  Judas  Iscariot  and  Mr.  Iscariot  Judas,"  said  Amyas 
between  his  teeth,  and  then  observed  aloud,  "  that  the  Welsh 
gentlemen  seemed  rather  poor  horsemen." 

"  So  I  said  to  Mr.  Leigh's  groom,  yoiir  worship.  But  he 
says  that  those  parts  be  so  uncommon  rough  and  mountainous, 
that  the  poor  gentlemen,  you  see,  being  enforced  to  hunt  on 
foot,  have  no  such  opportunities  as  young  gentlemen  hereabout, 
like  your  worship ;  whom  God  preserve,  and  send  a  virtuous 
lady,  and  one  worthy  of  you." 

"  Thou  hast  a  villainously  glib  tongue,  fellow  !"  said  Amyas, 
who  was  thoroughly  out  of  humour ;  "  and  a  sneaking  down 
visage  too,  when  I  come  to  look  at  you.  I  doubt  but  you  are 
a  Papist  too,  I  do  !" 

"  Well,  sir  !  and  what  if  I  am  !  I  trust  I  don't  break  the 
queen's  laws  by  that.  If  I  don't  attend  Northam  church,  I 
pay  my  month's  shilling  for  the  use  of  the  poor,  as  the  Act 
directs;  and  beyond  that,  neither  you  nor  any  man  dare 
demand  of  me." 

"  Dare  !  Act  directs  !  You  rascally  lawyer,  you  !  and  whence 
does  an  ostler  like  you  get  your  shilling  to  pay  withal  ?  Answer 
me."  The  examinate  found  it  so  difficult  to  answer  the  ques- 
tion, that  he  suddenly  became  afflicted  with  deafness. 

"Do  you  hear1?"  roared  Amyas,  catching  at  him  with  his 
lion's  paw. 

"Yes,  missus;  anon,  anon,  missus!"  quoth  he  to  an 
imaginary  landlady  inside,  and  twisting  under  Amyas's  hand 
like  an  eel,  vanished  into  the  house,  while  Frank  got  the  hot- 
headed youth  away. 

"  What  a  plague  is  one  to  do,  then  ?  That  fellow  was  a 
Papist  spy  !" 

"  Of  course  he  was  !"  said  Frank. 

"  Then,  what  is  one  to  do,  if  the  whole  country  is  full  of 
them  ?" 

"  Not  to  make  fools  of  ourselves  about  them  ;  and  so  leave 
them  to  make  fools  of  themselves." 

"  That's  all  very  fine  :  but — well,  I  shall  remember  the 
villain's  face  if  I  see  him  again." 

"  There  is  no  harm  in  that,"  said  Frank. 

"  Glad  you  think  so." 

"  Don't  quarrel  with  me,  Amyas,  the  first  day." 


60  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

"  Quarrel  with  thee,  my  darling  old  fellow  !  I  had  sooner 
kiss  the  dust  off  thy  feet,  if  I  were  worthy  of  it.  So  now  away 
home  ;  my  inside  cries  cupboard." 

In  the  meanwhile  Messrs.  Evans  and  Morgans  were  riding 
away,  as  fast  as  the  rough  by-lanes  would  let  them,  along  the 
fresh  coast  of  the  bay,  steering  carefully  clear  of  Northam  town 
on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  of  Portledge,  where  dwelt 
that  most  Protestant  justice  of  the  peace,  Mr.  Coffin.  And  it 
was  well  for  them  that  neither  Amyas  Leigh,  nor  indeed  any 
other  loyal  Englishman,  was  by  when  they  entered,  as  they 
shortly  did,  the  lonely  woods  which  stretch  along  the  southern 
wall  of  the  bay.  For  there  Eustace  Leigh  pulled  up  short ;  and 
both  he  and  his  groom,  leaping  from  their  horses,  knelt  down 
humbly  in  the  wet  grass,  and  implored  the  blessing  of  the  two 
valiant  gentlemen  of  Wales,  who,  having  graciously  bestowed 
it  with  three  fingers  apiece,  became  thenceforth  no  longer 
Morgan  Evans  and  Evan  Morgans,  Welshmen  and  gentle- 
men ;  but  Father  Parsons  and  Father  Campian,  Jesuits,  and 
gentlemen  in  no  sense  in  which  that  word  is  applied  in  this 
book. 

After  a  few  minutes,  the  party  were  again  in  motion,  am- 
bling steadily  and  cautiously  along  the  high  table-land,  towards 
Moorwinstow  in  the  west ;  while  beneath  them  on  the  right,  at 
the  mouth  of  rich-wooded  glens,  opened  vistas  of  the  bright  blue 
bay,  and  beyond  it  the  sandhills  of  Braunton,  and  the  ragged 
rocks  of  Morte ;  while  far  away  to  the  north  and  west  the  lonely 
isle  of  Lundy  hung  like  a  soft  grey  cloud. 

But  they  were  not  destined  to  reach  their  point  as  peace- 
ably as  they  could  have  wished.  For  just  as  they  got  opposite 
Clovelly  Dike,  the  huge  old  Roman  encampment  which  stands 
about  mid- way  in  their  journey,  they  heard  a  halloo  from  the 
valley  below,  answered  by  a  fainter  one  far  ahead.  At  which, 
like  a  couple  of  rogues  (as  indeed  they  were),  Father  Campian 
and  Father  Parsons  looked  at  each  other,  and  then  both  stared 
round  at  the  wild,  desolate,  open  pasture  (for  the  country  was 
then  all  unenclosed),  and  the  great  dark  furze-grown  banks  above 
their  heads ;  and  Campian  remarked  gently  to  Parsons,  that  this 
was  a  very  dreary  spot,  and  likely  enough  for  robbers. 

"A  likelier  spot  for  us,  Father,"  said  Eustace,  punning. 
"  The  old  Romans  knew  what  they  were  about  when  they  put 
their  legions  up  aloft  here  to  overlook  land  and  sea  for  miles 
away ;  and  we  may  thank  them  some  day  for  their  leavings. 
The  banks  are  all  sound ;  there  is  plenty  of  good  water  inside  ; 


CHAP.  III.J  OF  WALES.  61 

and  "  (added  he  in  Latin),  "  in  case  our  Spanish  friends — you 
understand1?" 

"  Pauca  verba,  my  son  !"  said  Campian  :  but  as  he  spoke, 
up  from  the  ditch  close  beside  him,  as  if  rising  out  of  the  earth, 
burst  through  the  furze-bushes  an  armed  cavalier. 

"Pardon,  gentlemen!"  shouted  he,  as  the  Jesuit  and  his 
horse  recoiled  against  the  groom.  "  Stand,  for  your  lives  ! " 

"  Mater  coelorum  /"  moaned  Campian  :  while  Parsons,  who, 
as  all  the  world  knows,  was  a  blustering  bully  enough  (at  least 
with  his  tongue),  asked  :  "  What  a  murrain  right  had  he  to 
stop  honest  folks  on  the  queen's  highway?"  confirming  the 
same  with  a  mighty  oath,  which  he  set  down  a&peccatum  veniale, 
on  account  of  the  sudden  necessity ;  nay,  indeed  fraus  pia,  as 
proper  to  support  the  character  of  that  valiant  gentleman  of 
Wales,  Mr.  Evan  Morgans.  But  the  horseman,  taking  no  notice 
of  his  hint,  dashed  across  the  nose  of  Eustace  Leigh's  horse, 
with  a  "  Hillo,  old  lad  !  where  ridest  so  early  ?"  and  peering 
down  for  a  moment  into  the  ruts  of  the  narrow  track-way, 
struck  spurs  into  his  horse,  shouting,  "  A  fresh  slot !  right  away 
for  Hartland  !  Forward  gentlemen  all  !  follow,  follow,  follow  ! " 

"  Who  is  this  roysterer  V  asked  Parsons,  loftily. 

"  Will  Gary,  of  Clovelly ;  an  awful  heretic  :  and  here  come 
more  behind." 

And  as  he  spoke  four  or  five  more  mounted  gallants  plunged 
iu  and  out  of  the  great  dikes,  and  thundered  on  behind  the  party ; 
whose  horses,  quite  understanding  what  game  was  up,  burst  into 
full  gallop,  neighing  and  squealing ;  and  in  another  minute  the 
hapless  Jesuits  were  hurling  along  over  moor  and  moss  after  a 
"hart  of  grease." 

Parsons,  who,  though  a  vulgar  bully,  was  no  coward,  sup- 
ported the  character  of  Mr.  Evan  Morgans  well  enough ;  and 
he  would  have  really  enjoyed  himself,  had  he  not  been  in  agonies 
of  fear  lest  those  precious  saddle-bags  in  front  of  him  should 
break  from  their  lashings,  and  rolling  to  the  earth,  expose  to 
the  hoofs  of  heretic  horses,  perhaps  to  the  gaze  of  heretic  eyes, 
such  a  cargo  of  bulls,  dispensations,  secret  correspondences, 
seditious  tracts,  and  so  forth,  that  at  the  very  thought  of  their 
being  seen,  his  head  felt  loose  upon  his  shoulders.  But  the 
future  martyr  behind  him,  Mr.  Morgan  Evans,  gave  himself  up 
at  once  to  abject  despair,  and  as  he  bumped  and  rolled  along, 
sought  vainly  for  comfort  in  professional  ejaculations  in  the 
Lathi  tongue. 

"  Mater  intemerata !      Eripe  me  e — Ugh  !    I  am   down  ! 


62  "  OF  TWO  GENTLEMEN  [CHAP.  III. 

Adhcesit  pavimento  venter  ! — No  !  I  am  not !  Et  dilectum  tuum 
e  potentate  cants — Ah  !  Audisti  me  inter  cornua  unicomium  ! 
Put  this,  too,  down  in — ugh  ! — thy  account  in  favour  of  my 
poor — oh,  sharpness  of  this  saddle  !  Oh  whither,  barbarous 
islanders ! " 

Now  riding  on  his  quarter,  not  in  the  rough  track-way  like 
a  cockney,  but  through  the  soft  heather  like  a  sportsman,  was  a 
very  gallant  knight  whom  we  all  know  well  by  this  time,  Richard 
Grenvile  by  name ;  who  had  made  Mr.  Gary  and  the  rest  his 
guests  the  night  before,  and  then  ridden  out  with  them  at  five 
o'clock  that  morning,  after  the  wholesome  early  ways  of  the 
time,  to  rouse  a  well-known  stag  in  the  glens  at  Buckish,  by 
help  of  Mr.  Coffin's  hounds  from  Portledge.  Who  being  as 
good  a  Latiner  as  Campian's  self,  and  overhearing  both  the 
scraps  of  psalm  and  the  "  barbarous  islanders,"  pushed  his  horse 
alongside  of  Mr.  Eustace  Leigh,  and  at  the  first  check  said,  with 
two  low  bows  towards  the  two  strangers — 

"  I  hope  Mr.  Leigh  will  do  me  the  honour  of  introducing 
me  to  his  guests.  I  should  be  sorry,  and  Mr.  Gary  also,  that 
any  gentle  strangers  should  become  neighbours  of  ours,  even  for 
a  day,  without  our  knowing  who  they  are  who  honour  our 
western  Thule  with  a  visit ;  and  showing  them  ourselves  all 
due  requital  for  the  compliment  of  their  presence." 

After  which,  the  only  thing  which  poor  Eustace  could  do 
(especially  as  it  was  spoken  loud  enough  for  all  bystanders), 
was  to  introduce  in  due  form  Mr.  Evan  Morgans  and  Mr. 
Morgan  Evans,  who,  hearing  the  name,  and  what  was  worse, 
seeing  the  terrible  face  with  its  quiet  searching  eye,  felt  like  a 
brace  of  partridge-poults  cowering  in  the  stubble,  with  a  hawk 
hanging  ten  feet  over  their  heads. 

"  Gentlemen,"  said  Sir  Richard  blandly,  cap  in  hand ;  "  I 
fear  that  your  mails  must  have  been  somewhat  in  your  way  in 
this  unexpected  gallop.  If  you  will  permit  my  groom,  who  is 
behind,  to  disencumber  you  of  them  and  carry  them  to  Chapel, 
you  will  both  confer  an  honour  on  me,  and  be  enabled  yourselves 
to  see  the  mort  more  pleasantly." 

A  twinkle  of  fun,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts,  played  about 
good  Sir  Richard's  eye  as  he  gave  this  searching  hint.  The  two 
Welsh  gentlemen  stammered  out  clumsy  thanks  ;  and  pleading 
great  haste  and  fatigue  from  a  long  journey,  contrived  to  fall 
to  the  rear  and  vanish  with  their  guides,  as  soon  as  the  slot  had 
been  recovered. 

"  Will !"  said  Sir  Richard,  pushing  alongside  of  young  Gary. 


niAi-.  in.]  OF  WALKS.  .    63 

"  Your  worship  ?" 

"Jesuits,  Will  !" 

"  May  the  father  of  lies  fly  away  with  them  over  the  nearest 
cliff!" 

"  He  will  not  do  that  while  this  Irish  trouble  is  about. 
Those  fellows  are  come  to  practise  here  for  Saunders  and 
Desmond." 

"  Perhaps  they  have  a  consecrated  banner  in  their  bag,  the 
scoundrels !  Shall  I  and  young  Coffin  on  and  stop  them  ? 
Hard  if  the  honest  men  may  not  rob  the  thieves  once  in  a  way." 

"  No ;  give  the  devil  rope,  and  he  will  hang  himself.  Keep 
thy  tongue  at  home,  and  thine  eyes  too,  Will." 

"How  then1?" 

•"Let  Clovelly  beach  be  watched  night  and  day  like  any 
mousehole.  No  one  can  land  round  Harty  Point  with  these 
south-westers.  Stop  every  fellow  who  has  the  ghost  of  an  Irish 
brogue,  come  he  in  or  go  he  out,  and  send  him  over  to  me." 

"  Some  one  should  guard  Bude-haven,  sir." 

"  Leave  that  to  me.  Now  then,  forward,  gentlemen  all,  or 
the  stag  will  take  the  sea  at  the  Abbey." 

And  on  they  crashed  down  the  Hartland  glens,  through  the 
oak-scrub  and  the  great  crown-ferns ;  and  the  baying  of  the 
slow-hound  and  the  tantaras  of  the  horn  died  away  farther  and 
fainter  toward  the  blue  Atlantic,  while  the  conspirators,  with 
lightened  hearts,  pricked  fast  across  Bursdon  upon  their  evil 
errand.  But  Eustace  Leigh  had  other  thoughts  and  other  cares 
than  the  safety  of  his  father's  two  mysterious  guests,  important 
as  that  was  in  his  eyes ;  for  he  was  one  of  the  many  who  had 
drunk  in  sweet  poison  (though  in  his  case  it  could  hardly  be  called 
sweet)  from  the  magic  glances  of  the  Rose  of  Torridge.  He 
had  seen  her  in  the  town,  and  for  the  first  time  in  his  life  fallen 
utterly  in  love ;  and  now  that  she  had  come  down  close  to  his 
father's  house,  he  looked  on  her  as  a  lamb  fallen  unawares  into 
the  jaws  of  the  greedy  wolf,  which  he  felt  himself  to  be.  For 
Eustace's  love  had  little  or  nothing  of  chivalry,  self-sacrifice,  or 
purity  in  it;  those  were  virtues  which  were  not  taught  at 
Rheims.  Careful  as  the  Jesuits  were  over  the  practical  morality 
of  their  pupils,  this  severe  restraint  had  little  effect  in  producing 
real  habits  of  self-control.  What  little  Eustace  had  learnt  of 
women  from  them,  was  as  base  and  vulgar  as  the  rest  of  their 
teaching.  What  could  it  be  else,  if  instilled  by  men  educated 
in  the  schools  of  Italy  and  France,  in  the  age  which  produced 
the  foul  novels  of  Cinthio  and  Bandello,  and  compelled  Rabelais 


64    ^  THE  TWO  WAYS  OP  [CHAP.  iv. 

in  order  to  escape  the  rack  and  stake,  to  hide  the  light  of  his 
great  wisdom,  not  beneath  a  bushel,  but  beneath  a  dunghill ; 
the  age  in  which  the  Romish  Church  had  made  marriage  a 
legalised  tyranny,  and  the  laity,  by  a  natural  and  pardonable 
revulsion,  had  exalted  adultery  into  a  virtue  and  a  science  1 
That  all  love  was  lust ;  that  all  women  had  their  price ;  that 
profligacy,  though  an  ecclesiastical  sin,  was  so  pardonable,  if 
not  necessary,  as  to  be  hardly  a  moral  sin,  were  notions  which 
Eustace  must  needs  have  gathered  from  the  hints  of  his  pre- 
ceptors ;  for  their  written  works  bear  to  this  day  fullest  and 
foulest  testimony  that  such  was  their  opinion ;  and  that  their 
conception  of  the  relation  of  the  sexes  was  really  not  a  whit 
higher  than  that  of  the  profligate  laity  who  confessed  to  them. 
He  longed  to  marry  Rose  Salterne,  with  a  wild  selfish  fury ; 
but  only  that  he  might  be  able  to  claim  her  as  his  own  property, 
and  keep  all  others  from  her.  Of  her  as  a  co-equal  and  en- 
nobling helpmate ;  as  one  in  whose  honour,  glory,  growth  of  heart 
and  soul,  his  own  were  inextricably  wrapt  tip,  he  had  never 
dreamed.  Marriage  would  prevent  God  from  being  angry  with 
that,  with  which  otherwise  He  might  be  angry ;  and  therefore 
the  sanction  of  the  Church  was  the  more  "  probable  and  safe  " 
course.  But  as  yet  his  suit  was  in  very  embryo.  He  could  not 
even  tell  whether  Rose  knew  of  his  love ;  and  he  wasted  miser- 
able hours  in  maddening  thoughts,  and  tost  all  night  upon  his 
sleepless  bed,  and  rose  next  morning  fierce  and  pale,  to  invent 
fresh  excuses  for  going  over  to  her  uncle's  house,  and  lingering 
about  the  fruit  which  he  dared  not  snatch. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   TWO   WAYS    OF   BEING   CROST   IN   LOVE. 

"  I  could  not  love  thee,  dear,  so  much, 
Loved  I  not  honour  more." — LOVELACE. 

AND  what  all  this  while  has  become  of  the  fair  breaker  of  so 
many  hearts,  to  whom  I  have  not  yet  even  introduced  my 
readers  ? 

She  was  sitting  in  the  little  farm-house  beside  the  mill, 
buried  in  the  green  depths  of  the  Valley  of  Combe,  half-way 
between  Stow  and  Chapel,  sulking  as  much  as  her  sweet  nature 
would  let  her,  at  being  thus  shut  out  from  all  the  grand  doings 
at  Bideford,  and  forced  to  keep  a  Martinmas  Lent  in  that  far 


CHAP.  IV.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  65 

western  glen.  So  lonely  was  she,  in  fact,  that  though  she  re- 
garded Eustace  Leigh  with  somewhat  of  aversion,  and  (being  a 
good  Protestant)  with  a  great  deal  of  suspicion,  she  could  not 
find  it  in  her  heart  to  avoid  a  chat  with  him  whenever  he  came 
down  to  the  farm  and  to  its  mill,  which  he  contrived  to  do,  on 
I  know  not  what  would-be  errand,  almost  every  day.  Her 
uncle  and  aunt  at  first  looked  stiff  enough  at  these  visits,  and 
the  latter  took  care  always  to  make  a  third  in  every  conversa- 
tion ;  but  still  Mr.  Leigh  was  a  gentleman's  son,  and  it  would 
not  do  to  be  rude  to  a  neighbouring  squire  and  a  good  customer ; 
and  Rose  was  the  rich  man's  daughter  and  they  poor  cousins,  so 
it  would  not  do  either  to  quarrel  with  her ;  and  besides,  the 
pretty  maid,  half  by  wilfulness,  and  half  by  her  sweet  winning 
tricks,  generally  contrived  to  get  her  own  way  wheresoever  she 
went ;  and  she  herself  had  been  wise  enough  to  beg  her  aunt 
never  to  leave  them  alone, — for  she  "  could  not  a-bear  the  sight 
of  Mr.  Eustace,  only  she  must  have  some  one  to  talk  with  down 
here."  On  which  her  aunt  considered,  that  she  herself  was  but 
a  simple  country-woman ;  and  that  townsfolks'  ways  of  course 
must  be  very  different  from  hers ;  and  that  people  knew  their 
own  business  best ;  and  so  forth,  and  let  things  go  on  their  own 
way.  Eustace,  in  the  meanwhile,  who  knew  well  that  the 
difference  in  creed  between  him  and  Rose  was  likely  to  be  the 
very  hardest  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  love,  took  care  to  keep 
his  private  opinions  well  in  the  background ;  and  -instead  of 
trying  to  convert  the  folk  at  the  mill,  daily  bought  milk  or  flour 
from  them,  and  gave  it  away  to  the  old  women  in  Moorwinstow 
(who  agreed  that  after  all,  for  a  Papist,  he  was  a  godly  young 
man  enough)  ;  and  at  last,  having  taken  counsel  with  Campian 
and  Parsons  on  certain  political  plots  then  on  foot,  came  with 
them  to  the  conclusion  that  they  would  all  three  go  to  church 
the  next  Sunday.  Where  Messrs.  Evan  Morgans  and  Morgan 
Evans,  having  crammed  up  the  rubrics  beforehand,  behaved 
themselves  in  a  most  orthodox  and  unexceptionable  manner; 
as  did  also  poor  Eustace,  to  the  great  wonder  of  all  good  folks, 
and  then  went  home  flattering  himself  that  he  had  taken  in 
parson,  clerk,  and  people ;  not  knowing  in  his  simple  unsimpli- 
city,  and  cunning  foolishness,  that  each  good  wife  in  the  parish 
was  saying  to  the  other,  "  He  turned  Protestant  ?  The  devil 
turned  monk  !  He's  only  after  Mistress  Salterne,  the  young 
hypocrite." 

But  if  the  two  Jesuits  found  it  expedient,  for  the  holy  cause 
in  which  they  were  embarked,  to  reconcile  themselves  outwardly 


66  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  iv. 

to  the  powers  that  were,  they  were  none  the  less  busy  in  private 
in  plotting  their  overthrow. 

Ever  since  April  last  they  had  been  playing  at  hide-and-seek 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  England,  and  now  they  were 
only  lying  quiet  till  expected  news  from  Ireland  should  give 
them  their  cue,  and  a  great  "  rising  of  the  West "  should  sweep 
from  her  throne  that  stiff-necked,  persecuting,  excommunicate, 
reprobate,  illegitimate,  and  profligate  usurper,  who  falsely  called 
herself  the  Queen  of  England. 

For  they  had  as  stoutly  persuaded  themselves  in  those  days, 
as  they  have  in  these  (with  a  real  Baconian  contempt  of  the 
results  of  sensible  experience),  that  the  heart  of  England  was 
really  with  them,  and  that  the  British  nation  was  on  the  point 
of  returning  to  the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  giving 
up  Elizabeth  to  be  led  in  chains  to  the  feet  of  the  rightful 
Lord  of  Creation,  the  Old  Man  of  the  Seven  Hills.  And  this 
fair  hope,  which  has  been  skipping  just  in  front  of  them  for 
centuries,  always  a  step  farther  off,  like  the  place  where  the 
rainbow  touches  the  ground,  they  used  to  announce  at  times, 
in  language  which  terrified  old  Mr.  Leigh.  One  day,  indeed, 
as  Eustace  entered  his  father's  private  room,  after  his  usual 
visit  to  the  mill,  he  could  hear  voices  high  in  dispute ;  Parsons 
as  usual,  blustering;  Mr.  Leigh  peevishly  deprecating,  and 
Campian,  who  was  really  the  sweetest-natured  of  men,  trying 
to  pour  oil  on  the  troubled  waters.  Whereat  Eustace  (for  the 
good  of  the  cause,  of  course)  stopped  outside  and  listened. 

"  My  excellent  sir,"  said  Mr.  Leigh,  "  does  not  your  very 
presence  here  show  how  I  am  affected  toward  the  holy  cause 
of  the  Catholic  faith  1  But  I  cannot  in  the  meanwhile  forget 
that  I  am  an  Englishman." 

"  And  what  is  England  1"  said  Parsons :  "  A  heretic  and 
schismatic  Babylon,  whereof  it  is  written,  '  Come  out  of  her, 
my  people,  lest  you  be  partaker  of  her  plagues.'  Yea,  what  is 
a  country  1  An  arbitrary  division  of  territory  by  the  princes 
of  this  world,  who  are  nought,  and  come  to  nought.  They  are 
created  by  the  people's  will ;  their  existence  depends  on  the 
sanction  of  him  to  whom  all  power  is  given  in  heaven  and 
earth — our  Holy  Father  the  Pope.  Take  away  the  latter,  and 
what  is  a  king  ? — the  people  who  have  made  him  may  unmake 
him." 

"  My  dear  sir,  recollect  that  I  have  sworn  allegiance  to 
Queen  Elizabeth  !" 

"  Yes,  sir,  you  have,  sir ;  and,  as  I  have  shown  at  large 


CHAP.  IV.]  KI.IN'G  CROST  IN  LOVE.  67 

in  my  writings,  you  were  absolved  from  that  allegiance  from 
the  moment  that  the  bull  of  Pius  the  Fifth  declared  her  a 
heretic  and  excommunicate,  and  thereby  to  have  forfeited  all 
(liiininion  whatsoever.  I  tell  you,  sir,  what  I  thought  you 
should  have  known  already,  that  since  the  year  1569,  England 
has  had  no  queen,  no  magistrates,  no  laws,  no  lawful  authority 
whatsoever ;  and  that  to  own  allegiance  to  any  English  magis- 
trate, sir,  or  to  plead  in  an  English  court  of  law,  is  to  disobey 
the  apostolic  precept,  '  How  dare  you  go  to  law  before  the 
unbelievers  V  I  tell  you,  sir,  rebellion  is  now  not  merely  per- 
mitted, it  is  a  duty." 

"Take  care,  sir;  for  God's  sake,  take  care!"  said  Mr. 
Leigh.  "  Right  or  wrong,  I  cannot  have  such  language  used  in 
my  house.  For  the  sake  of  my  wife  and  children,  I  cannot !" 

"  My  dear  brother  Parsons,  deal  more  gently  with  the  flock," 
interposed  Campian.  "Your  opinion,  though  probable,  as  I 
well  know,  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  our  order,  is  hardly  safe 
enough  here ;  the  opposite  is  at  least  so  safe  that  Mr.  Leigh 
may  well  excuse  his  conscience  for  accepting  it.  After  all,  are 
we  not  sent  hither  to  proclaim  this  very  thing,  and  to  relieve 
the  souls  of  good  Catholics  from  a  burden  which  has  seemed  to 
them  too  heavy1?" 

"  Yes,"  said  Parsons  half-sulkily,  "  to  allow  all  Balaams 
who  will  to  sacrifice  to  Baal,  while  they  call  themselves  by  the 
name  of  the  Lord." 

"  My  dear  brother,  have  I  not  often  reminded  you  that 
Naaman  was  allowed  to  bow  himself  in  the  house  of  Rimmon  1 
And  can  we  therefore  complain  of  the  office  to  which  the  Holy 
Father  has  appointed  us,  to  declare  to  such  as  Mr.  Leigh  his 
especial  grace,  by  which  the  bull  of  Pius  the  Fifth  (on  whose 
soul  God  have  mercy  !)  shall  henceforth  bind  the  queen  and 
the  heretics  only ;  but  in  no  ways  the  Catholics,  at  least  as 
long  as  the  present  tyranny  prevents  the  pious  purposes  of  the 
bull?" 

"  Be  it  so,  sir ;  be  it  so.  Only  observe  this,  Mr.  Leigh, 
that  our  brother  Campian  confesses  this  to  be  a  tyranny. 
Observe,  sir,  that  the  bull  does  still  bind  the  so-called  queen, 
and  that  she  and  her  magistrates  are  still  none  the  less  usurpers, 
nonentities,  and  shadows  of  a  shade.  And  observe  this,  sir, 
that  when  that  which  is  lawful  is  excused  to  the  weak,  it 
remains  no  less  lawful  to  the  strong.  The  seven  thousand  who 
had  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal  did  not  slay  his  priests  ;  but 
Elijah  did,  and  won  to  himself  a  good  reward.  And  if  the 


68  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  IV. 

rest  of  the  children  of  Israel  sinned  not  in  not  slaying  Eglon, 
yet  Ehud's  deed  was  none  the  less  justified  by  all  laws  human 
and  divine." 

"  For  Heaven's  sake,  do  not  talk  so,  sir !  or  I  must  leave 
the  room.  What  have  I  to  do  with  Ehud  and  Eglon,  and 
slaughters,  and  tyrannies  ?  Our  queen  is  a  very  good  queen, 
if  Heaven  would  but  grant  her  repentance,  and  turn  her  to  the 
true  faith.  I  have  never  been  troubled  about  religion,  nor  any 
one  else  that  I  know  of  in  the  West  country." 

"  You  forget  Mr.  Trudgeon  of  Launceston,  father,  and  poor 
Father  Mayne,"  interposed  Eustace,  who  had  by  this  time 
slipped  in  ;  and  Campian  added  softly — 

"  Yes,  your  West  of  England  also  has  been  honoured  by  its 
martyrs,  as  well  as  my  London  by  the  precious  blood  of  Story." 

"  What,  young  malapert  1"  cried  poor  Leigh,  facing  round 
upon  his  son,  glad  to  find  any  one  on  whom  he  might  vent  his 
ill-humour  ;  "  are  you  too  against  me,  with  a  murrain  on  you  ? 
And  pray,  what  the  devil  brought  Cuthbert  Mayne  to  the 
gallows,  and  turned  Mr.  Trudgeon  (he  was  always  a  foolish 
hot-head)  out  of  house  and  home,  but  just  such  treasonable  talk 
as  Mr.  Parsons  must  needs  hold  in  rny  house,  to  make  a  beggar 
of  me  and  my  children,  as  he  will  before  he  has  done." 

"  The  blessed  Virgin  forbid  ! "  said  Campian. 

"  The  blessed  Virgin  forbid  ?  But  you  must  help  her  to 
forbid  it,  Mr.  Campian.  We  should  never  have  had  the  law  of 
1571,  against  bulls,  and  Agnus  Deis,  and  blessed  grains,  if  the 
Pope's  bull  of  1569  had  not  made  them  matter  of  treason,  by 
preventing  a  poor  creature's  saving  his  soul  in  the  true  Church 
without  putting  his  neck  into  a  halter  by  denying  the  queen's 
authority." 

"What,  sir?"  almost  roared  Parsons,  "do  you  dare  to 
speak  evil  of  the  edicts  of  the  Vicar  of  Christ  V 

"  II  No.  I  didn't.  Who  says  I  did  ?  All  I  meant  was, 
I  am  sure — Mr.  Campian,  you  are  a  reasonable  man,  speak  for 
me." 

"  Mr.  Leigh  only  meant,  I  am  sure,  that  the  Holy  Father's 
prudent  intentions  have  been  so  far  defeated  by  the  perverseness 
and  invincible  misunderstanding  of  the  heretics,  that  that  which 
was  in  itself  meant  for  the  good  of  the  oppressed  English 
Catholics  has  been  perverted  to  their  harm." 

"  And  thus,  reverend  sir,"  said  Eustace,  glad  to  get  into  his 
father's  good  graces  again,  "  my  father  attaches  blame,  not  to 
the  Pope — Heaven  forbid  ! — but  to  the  pravity  of  his  enemies," 


CHAP.  IV.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  69 

"  And  it  is  for  this  very  reason,"  said  Campian,  "  that  we 
have  brought  with  us  the  present  merciful  explanation  of  the 
bull." 

"I'll  tell  you  what,  gentlemen,"  said  Mr.  Leigh,  who,  like 
other  weak  men,  grew  in  valour  as  his  opponent  seemed  inclined 
to  make  peace,  "I  don't  think  the  declaration  was  needed. 
After  the  new  law  of  1571  was  made,  it  was  never  put  in  force 
till  Mayne  and  Trudgeon  made  fools  of  themselves,  and  that 
was  full  six  years.  There  were  a  few  offenders,  they  say,  who 
were  brought  up  and  admonished,  and  let  go  ;  but  even  that 
did  not  happen  down  here,  and  need  not  happen  now,  unless 
you  put  my  son  here  (for  you  shall  never  put  me,  I  warrant 
you)  upon  some  deed  which  had  better  be  left  alone,  and  so 
bring  us  all  to  shame." 

"  Your  son,  sir,  if  not  openly  vowed  to  God,  has,  I  hope,  a 
due  sense  of  that  inward  vocation  which  we  have  seen  in  him, 
and  reverences  his  spiritual  fathers  too  well  to  listen  to  the 
temptations  of  his  earthly  father." 

"What,  sir,  will  you  teach  my  son  to  disobey  me1?" 

"  Your  son  is  ours  also,  sir.  This  is  strange  language  in 
one  who  owes  a  debt  to  the  Church,  which  it  was  charitably 
fancied  he  meant  to  pay  in  the  person  of  his  child." 

These  last  words  touched  poor  Mr.  Leigh  in  a  sore  point, 
and  breaking  all  bounds,  he  swore  roundly  at  Parsons,  who 
stood  foaming  with  rage. 

"  A  plague  upon  you,  sir,  and  a  black  assizes  for  you,  for 
you  will  come  to  the  gallows  yet !  Do  you  mean  to  taunt  me 
in  my  own  house  with  that  Hartland  land  ?  You  had  better 
go  back  and  ask  those  who  sent  you  where  the  dispensation  to 
hold  the  land  is,  which  they  promised  to  get  me  years  ago,  and 
have  gone  on  putting  me  off,  till  they  have  got  my  money,  and 
my  son,  and  my  conscience,  and  I  vow  before  all  the  saints, 
seem  now  to  want  my  head  over  and  above.  God  help  me  !"- 
and  the  poor  man's  eyes  fairly  filled  with  tears. 

Now  was  Eustace's  turn  to  be  roused;  for,  after  all,  he 
was  an  Englishman  and  a  gentleman;  and  he  said  kindly 
enough,  but  firmly — 

"  Courage,  my  clearest  father.  Remember  that  I  am  still 
your  son,  and  not  a  Jesuit  yet ;  and  whether  I  ever  become 
one,  I  promise  you,  will  depend  mainly  on  the  treatment  which 
you  meet  with  at  the  hands  of  these  reverend  gentlemen,  for 
whom  I,  as  having  brought  them  hither,  must  consider  myself 
as  surety  to  you." 


70  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  iv. 

If  a  powder-barrel  had  exploded  in  the  Jesuits'  faces,  they 
could  not  have  been  more  amazed.  Campian  looked  blank  at 
Parsons,  and  Parsons  at  Campian ;  till  the  stouter-hearted  of 
the  two,  recovering  his  breath  at  last — 

"Sir!  do  you  know,  sir,  the  curse  pronounced  on  those 
who,  after  putting  their  hand  to  the  plough,  look  back  f ' 

Eustace  was  one  of  those  impulsive  men,  with  a  lack  of 
moral  courage,  who  dare  raise  the  devil,  but  never  dare  fight 
him  after  he  has  been  raised ;  and  he  now  tried  to  pass  off  his 
speech  by  winking  and  making  signs  in  the  direction  of  his 
father,  as  much  as  to  say  that  he  was  only  trying  to  quiet  the 
old  man's  fears.  But  Campian  was  too  frightened,  Parsons  too 
angry,  to  take  his  hints  :  and  he  had  to  carry  his  part  through. 

"  All  I  read  is,  Father  Parsons,  that  such  are  not  fit  for 
the  kingdom  of  God ;  of  which  high  honour  I  have  for  some 
time  past  felt  myself  unworthy.  I  have  much  doubt  just  now 
as  to  my  vocation  ;  and  in  the  meanwhile  have  not  forgotten 
that  I  am  a  citizen  of  a  free  country."  And  so  saying,  he  took 
his  father's  arm,  and  walked  out. 

His  last  words  had  hit  the  Jesuits  hard.  They  had  put  the 
poor  cobweb-spinners  in  mind  of  the  humiliating  fact,  which 
they  have  had  thrust  on  them  daily  from  that  time  till  now, 
and  yet  have  never  learnt  the  lesson,  that  all  their  scholastic 
cunning,  plotting,  intriguing,  bulls,  pardons,  indulgences,  and 
the  rest  of  it,  are,  on  this  side  the  Channel,  a  mere  enchanter's 
cloud-castle  and  Fata  Morgana,  which  vanishes  into  empty  air 
by  one  touch  of  that  magic  wand,  the  constable's  staff.  "A 
citizen  of  a  free  country  !" — there  was  the  rub  ;  and  they 
looked  at  each  other  in  more  utter  perplexity  than  ever.  At 
last  Parsons  spoke. 

"  There's  a  woman  in  the  wind.  I'll  lay  my  life  on  it.  I 
saw  him  blush  up  crimson  yesterday  when  his  mother  asked 
him  whether  some  Rose  Salterne  or  other  was  still  in  the 
neighbourhood." 

"  A  woman  !  Well  the  spirit  may  be  willing,  though  the 
flesh  be  weak.  We  will  inquire  into  this.  The  youth  may  do 
us  good  service  as  a  layman ;  and  if  anything  should  happen  to 
his  elder  brother  (whom  the  saints  protect !)  he  is  heir  to  some 
wealth.  In  the  meanwhile,  our  dear  brother  Parsons  will  per- 
haps see  the  expediency  of  altering  our  tactics  somewhat  while 
we  are  here." 

And  thereupon  a  long  conversation  began  between  the  two, 
who  had  been  sent  together,  after  the  wise  method  of  their 


CHAI-.  iv.l  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  71 

order,  in  obedience  to  the  precept,  "  Two  are  better  than  one," 
in  order  that  Campian  might  restrain  Parsons'  vehemence,  and 
Parsons  spur  on  Campian's  gentleness,  and  so  each  act  as  the 
supplement  of  the  other,  and  each  also,  it  must  be  confessed, 
gave  advice  pretty  nearly  contradictory  to  his  fellow's  if  occa- 
sion should  require,  "without  the  danger,"  as  their  writers 
have  it,  "  of  seeming  changeable  and  inconsistent." 

The  upshot  of  this  conversation  was,  that  in  a  day  or  two 
(during  which  time  Mr.  Leigh  and  Eustace  also  had  made  the 
amende  honorable,  and  matters  went  smoothly  enough)  Father 
Campian  asked  Father  Francis  the  household  chaplain  to  allow 
him,  as  an  especial  favour,  to  hear  Eustace's  usual  confession 
on  the  ensuing  Friday. 

Poor  Father  Francis  dared  not  refuse  so  great  a  man  ;  and 
assented  with  an  inward  groan,  knowing  well  that  the  intent 
was  to  worm  out  some  family  secrets,  whereby  his  power  would 
be  diminished,  and  the  Jesuits'  increased.  For  the  regular 
priesthood  and  the  Jesuits  throughout  England  were  toward 
each  other  in  a  state  of  armed  neutrality,  which  wanted  but 
little  at  any  moment  to  become  open  war,  as  it  did  in  James 
the  First's  time,  when  those  meek  missionaries,  by  their  gentle 
moral  tortures,  literally  hunted  to  death  the  poor  Popish  bishop 
of  Hippopotamus  (that  is  to  say,  London)  for  the  time  being. 

However,  Campian  heard  Eustace's  confession;  and  by 
putting  to  him  such  questions  as  may  be  easily  conceived  by 
those  who  know  anything  about  the  confessional,  discovered 
satisfactorily  enough,  that  he  was  what  Campian  would  have 
called  "in  love  :"  though  I  should  question  much  the  propriety 
of  the  term  as  applied  to  any  facts  which  poor  prurient  Campian 
discovered,  or  indeed  knew  how  to  discover,  seeing  that  a  swine 
has  no  eye  for  pearls.  But  he  had  found  out  enough  :  he  smiled, 
and  set  to  work  next  vigorously  to  discover  who  the  lady  might 
be. 

If  he  had  frankly  said  to  Eustace,  "  I  feel  for  you ;  and  if 
your  desires  are  reasonable,  or  lawful,  or  possible,  I  will  help 
you  with  all  my  heart  and  soul,"  he  might  have  had  the  young 
man's  secret  heart,  and  saved  himself  an  hour's  trouble  ;  but,  of 
course,  he  took  instinctively  the  crooked  and  suspicious  method, 
expected  to  find  the  case  the  worst  possible, — as  a  man  was 
bound  to  do  who  had  been  trained  to  take  the  lowest  possible 
view  of  human  nature,  and  to  consider  the  basest  motives  as  the 
mainspring  of  all  human  action, — and  began  his  moral  torture 
accordingly  by  a  series  of  delicate  questions,  which  poor  Eustace 


72  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  iv. 

dodged  in  every  possible  way,  though  he  knew  that  the  good 
father  was  too  cunning  for  him,  and  that  he  must  give  in  at 
last.  Nevertheless,  like  a  rabbit  who  runs  squealing  round  and 
round  before  the  weasel,  into  whose  jaws  it  knows  that  it  must 
jump  at  last  by  force  of  fascination,  he  parried  and  parried,  and 
pretended  to  be  stupid,  and  surprised,  and  honourably  scrupulous, 
and  even  angry  ;  while  every  question  as  to  her  being  married  or 
single,  Catholic  or  heretic,  English  or  foreign,  brought  his  tor- 
mentor a  step  nearer  the  goal.  At  last,  when  Campian,  finding 
the  business  not  such  a  very  bad  one,  had  asked  something  about 
her  worldly  wealth,  Eustace  saw  a  door  of  escape  and  sprang  at 
it. 

"  Even  if  she  be  a  heretic,  she  is  heiress  to  one  of  the 
wealthiest  merchants  in  Devon." 

"Ah  !"  said  Campian  thoughtfully.  "And  she  is  but 
eighteen,  you  say  1" 

"Only  eighteen." 

"  Ah  !  well,  my  son,  there  is  time.  She  may  be  reconciled 
to  the  Church  :  or  you  may  change." 

"  I  shall  die  first." 

"  Ah,  poor  lad !  Well ;  she  may  be  reconciled,  and  her 
wealth  may  be  of  use  to  the  cause  of  Heaven." 

"  And  it  shall  be  of  use.  Only  absolve  me,  and  let  me  be 
at  peace.  Let  me  have  but  her,"  he  cried  piteously.  "  I  do 
not  want  her  wealth,— not  I !  Let  me  have  but  her,  and  that 
but  for  one  year,  one  month,  one  day  ! — and  all  the  rest, — 
money,  fame,  talents,  yea,  my  life  itself,  hers  if  it  be  needed,- — 
are  at  the  service  of  Holy  Church.  Ay,  I  shall  glory  in  show- 
ing my  devotion  by  some  special  sacrifice,— some  desperate  deed. 
Prove  me  now,  and  see  what  there  is  I  will  not  do ! " 

And  so  Eustace  was  absolved;  after  which  Campian  added, — 

"  This  is  indeed  well,  my  son  :  for  there  is  a  thing  to  be 
done  now,  but  it  may  be  at  the  risk  of  life." 

"  Prove  me  !"  cried  Eustace  impatiently. 

"  Here  is  a  letter  which  was  brought  me  last  night ;  no 
matter  from  whence  ;  you  can  understand  it  better  than  I,  and 
I  longed  to  have  shown  it  you,  but  that  I  feared  my  son  had 
become " 

"You  feared  wrongly,  then,  my  dear  Father  Campian." 

So  Campian  translated  to  him  the  cipher  of  the  letter. 

"  This  to  Evan  Morgans,  gentleman,  at  Mr.  Leigh's  house 
in  Moorwinstow,  Devonshire.  News  may  be  had  by  one  who 
will  go  to  the  shore  of  Clovelly,  any  evening  after  the  25th  of 


CHAI-.  iv.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  73 

November,  at  dead  low  tide,  and  there  watch  for  a  boat,  rowed 
by  one  with  a  red  beard,  and  a  Portugal  by  his  speech.  If  he 
be  asked,  'How  many?'  he  will  answer,  'Eight  hundred  and 
one.'  Take  his  letters  and  read  them.  If  the  shore  be  watched, 
let  him  who  comes  show  a  light  three  times  in  a  safe  place  under 
the  cliif  above  the  town ;  below  is  dangerous  landing.  Farewell, 
;u nl  expect  great  things  !" 

"  I  will  go,"  said  Eustace ;  "  to-morrow  is  the  25th,  and  I 
know  a  sure  and  easy  place.  Your  friend  seems  to  know  these 
shores  well." 

"Ah  !  what  is  it  we  do  not  know?"  said  Campian,  with  a 
mysterious  smile.  "  And  now  1" 

"  And  now,  to  prove  to  you  how  I  trust  to  you,  you  shall 
come  with  me,  and  see  this — the  lady  of  whom  I  spoke,  and 
judge  for  yourself  whether  my  fault  is  not  a  venial  one." 

"  Ah,  my  son,  have  I  not  absolved  you  already  ?  What 
have  I  to  do  with  fair  faces  1  Nevertheless,  I  will  come,  both 
to  show  you  that  I  trust  you,  and  it  may  be  to  help  towards 
reclaiming  a  heretic,  and  saving  a  lost  soul :  who  knows?" 

So  the  two  set  out  together ;  and,  as  it  was  appointed,  they 
had  just  got  to  the  top  of  the  hill  between  Chapel  and  Stow 
mill,  when  up  the  lane  came  none  other  than  Mistress  Rose 
Salterne  herself,  in  all  the  glories  of  a  new  scarlet  hood,  from 
under  which  her  large  dark  languid  eyes  gleamed  soft  lightnings 
through  poor  Eustace's  heart  and  marrow.  Up  to  them  she 
tripped  on  delicate  ankles  and  tiny  feet,  tall,  lithe,  and  graceful, 
a  true  West-country  lass ;  and  as  she  passed  them  with  a  pretty 
blush  and  courtesy,  even  Campian  looked  back  at  the  fair  inno- 
cent creature,  whose  long  dark  curls,  after  the  then  country 
fashion,  rolled  down  from  beneath  the  hood  below  her  waist, 
entangling  the  soul  of  Eustace  Leigh  within  their  glossy  nets. 

"There!"  whispered  he,  trembling  from  head  to  foot. 
"  Can  you  excuse  me  now  ?"  . 

"  I  had  excused  you  long  ago,"  said  the  kind-hearted  father. 
"  Alas,  that  so  much  fair  red  and  white  should  have  been  created 
only  as  a  feast  for  worms  !" 

"A  feast  for  gods  you  mean!"  cried  Eustace,  on  whose 
common  sense  the  naive  absurdity  of  the  last  speech  struck 
keenly ;  and  then,  as  if  to  escape  the  scolding  which  he  deserved 
for  his  heathenry, — 

"  Will  you  let  me  return  for  a  moment  1  I  will  follow  you  : 
let  me  go  ! " 

Campian  saw  that  it  was  of  no  use  to  say  no,  and  nodded. 


74  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [cn\r.  iv. 

Eustace  darted  from  his  side,  arid  running  across  a  field,  met 
Hose  full  at  the  next  turn  of  the  road. 

She  started,  and  gave  a  pretty  little  shriek. 

"Mr.  Leigh  !     I  thought  you  had  gone  forward." 

"  I  came  back  to  speak  to  you,  Rose — Mistress  Salterne,  I 
mean." 

"Tome?" 

"To  you  I  must  speak,  tell  you  all,  or  die!"  And  he 
pressed  up  close  to  her.  She  shrank  back  somewhat  fright- 
ened. 

"Do  not  stir;  do  not  go,  I  implore  you !  Rose,  only  hear 
me  !"  And  fiercely  and  passionately  seizing  her  by  the  hand, 
he  poured  out  the  whole  story  of  his  love,  heaping  her  with 
every  fantastic  epithet  of  admiration  which  he  could  devise. 

There  was  little,  perhaps,  of  all  his  words  which  Rose  had 
not  heard  many  a  time  before ;  but  there  was  a  quiver  in  his 
voice,  and  a  fire  in  his  eye,  from  which  she  shrank  by  instinct. 

" Let  me  go  !"  she  said ;  "you  are  too  rough,  sir  !" 

"Ay!"  he  said,  seizing  now  both  her  hands,  "rougher, 
perhaps,  than  the  gay  gallants  of  Bideford,  who  serenade  you, 
and  write  sonnets  to  you,  and  send  you  posies.  Rougher,  but 
more  loving,  Rose  !  Do  not  turn  away !  I  shall  die  if  you 
take  your  eyes  off  me  !  Tell  me, — tell  me,  now  here — this 
moment — before  we  part — if  I  may  love  you  !" 

"  Go  away !"  she  answered,  struggling,  and  bursting  into 
tears.  "  This  is  too  rude.  If  I  am  but  a  merchant's  daughter, 
I  am  God's  child.  Remember  that  I  am  alone.  Leave  me ; 
go  !  or  I  will  call  for  help  ! " 

Eustace  had  heard  or  read  somewhere  that  such  expressions 
in  a  woman's  mouth  were  mere  fafons  de  parler,  and  on  the 
whole  signs  that  she  had  no  objection  to  be  alone,  and  did  not 
intend  to  call  for  help;  and  he  only  grasped  her  hands  the 
more  fiercely,  and  looked  into  her  face  with  keen  and  hungry 
eyes  ;  but  she  was  in  earnest,  nevertheless,  and  a  loud  shriek 
made  him  aware  that,  if  he  wished  to  save  his  own  good  name, 
he  must  go :  but  there  was  one-  question,  for  an  answer  to 
Avhich  he  would  risk  his  very  life. 

"  Yes,  proud  woman  !  I  thought  so  !  Some  one  of  those 
gay  gallants  has  been  beforehand  with  me.  Tell  me  who  — 

But  she  broke  from  him,  and  passed  him,  and  fled  down 
the  lane. 

"Mark  it !"  cried  he,  after  her.  "You  shall  rue  the  day 
when  you  despised  Eustace  Leigh  !  Mark  it,  proud  beauty !" 


(  ii AI-.  iv.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  75 

And  he  turned  back  to  join  Campian,  who  stood  in  some  trepi- 
dation. 

"You  have  not  hurt  the  maiden,  my  son?  I  thought  I 
heard  a  scream." 

"  Hurt  her  !  No.  Would  God  that  she  were  dead,  never- 
theless, and  I  by  her  !  Say  no  more  to  me,  father.  We  will 
home."  Even  Campian  knew  enough  of  the  world  to  guess 
what  had  happened,  and  they  both  hurried  home  in  silence. 

And  so  Eustace  Leigh  played  his  move,  and  lost  it. 

Poor  little  Rose,  having  run  nearly  to  Chapel,  stopped  for 
very  shame,  and  walked  quietly  by  the  cottages  which  stood 
opposite  the  gate,  and  then  turned  up  the  lane  towards  Moor- 
winstow  village,  whither  she  was  bound.  But  on  second 
thoughts,  she  felt  herself  so  "  red  and  flustered,"  that  she  was 
afraid  of  going  into  the  village,  for  fear  (as  she  said  to  herself) 
of  making  people  talk,  and  so,  turning  into  a  by-path,  struck 
away  toward  the  cliffs,  to  cool  her  blushes  in  the  sea-breeze. 
And  there  finding  a  quiet  grassy  nook  beneath  the  crest  of  the 
rocks,  she  sat  down  on  the  turf,  and  fell  into  a  great  meditation. 

Rose  Salterne  was  a  thorough  specimen  of  a  West-coast 
maiden,  full  of  passionate  impulsive  affections,  and  wild  dreamy 
imaginations,  a  fit  subject,  as  the  North-Devon  women  are  still, 
for  all  romantic  and  gentle  superstitions.  Left  early  without 
a  mother's  care,  she  had  fed  her  fancy  upon  the  legends  and 
ballads  of  her  native  land,  till  she  believed — what  did  she  not 
believe  1 — of  mermaids  and  pixies,  charms  and  witches,  dreams 
and  omens,  and  all  that  world  of  magic  in  which  most  of  the 
countrywomen,  and  countrymen  too,  believed  firmly  enough  but 
twenty  years  ago.  Then  her  father's  house  was  seldom  without 
some  merchant,  or  sea-captain  from  foreign  parts,  who,  like 
Othello,  had  his  tales  of — 

"  Antres  vast,  and  deserts  idle, 
Of  rough  quarries,  rocks,  and  hills  whose  heads  reach  heaven." 

And, — 

"  And  of  the  cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 
The  anthropophagi,  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders. " 

All  which  tales,  she,  like  Desdemona,  devoured  with  greedy  ears, 
whenever  she  could  "  the  house  affairs  with  haste  despatch." 
And  when  these  failed,  there  was  still  boundless  store  of  wonders 
open  to  her  in  old  romances  which  were  then  to  be  found  in 
every  English  house  of  the  better  class.  The  Legend  of  King 
Arthur,  Florice  and  Blancheflour,  Sir  Ysumbras,  Sir  Guy  of 


76  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  IV. 

Warwick,  Palamon  and  Arcite,  and  the  Romaunt  of  the  Rose, 
were  with  her  text-books  and  canonical  authorities.  And  lucky 
it  was,  perhaps,  for  her  that  Sidney's  Arcadia  was  still  in  petto, 
or  Mr.  Frank  (who  had  already  seen  the  first  book  or  two  in 
manuscript,  and  extolled  it  above  all  books  past,  present,  or  to 
come)  would  have  surely  brought  a  copy  down  for  Rose,  and 
thereby  have  turned  her  poor  little  flighty  brains  upside  down 
for  ever.  And  with  her  head  full  of  these,  it  was  no  wonder 
if  she  had  likened  herself  of  late  more  than  once  to  some  of 
those  peerless  princesses  of  old,-  for  whose  fair  hand  paladins 
and  kaisers  thundered  against  each  other  in  tilted  field ;  and 
perhaps  she  would  not  have  been  sorry  (provided,  of  course,  no 
one  was  killed)  if  duels  and  passages  of  arms  in  honour  of  her, 
as  her  father  reasonably  dreaded,  had  actually  taken  place. 

For  Rose  was  not  only  well  aware  that  she  was  wooed,  but 
found  the  said  wooing  (and  little  shame  to  her)  a  very  pleasant 
process.  Not  that  she  had  any  wish  to  break  hearts  :  she  did 
not  break  her  heart  for  any  of  her  admirers,  and  why  should 
they  break  theirs  for  her  ?  They  were  all  very  charming,  each 
in  his  way  (the  gentlemen,  at  least ;  for  she  had  long  since 
learnt  to  turn  up  her  nose  at  merchants  and  burghers) ;  but 
one  of  them  was  not  so  very  much  better  than  the  other. 

Of  course,  Mr.  Frank  Leigh  was  the  most  charming ;  but 
then,  as  a  courtier  and  squire  of  dames,  he  had  never  given  her 
a  sign  of  real  love,  nothing  but  sonnets  and  compliments,  and 
there  was  no  trusting  such  things  from  a  gallant,  who  was  said 
(though,  by  the  by,  most  scandalously)  to  have  a  lady  love  at 
Milan,  and  another  at  Vienna,  and  half-a-dozen  in  the  Court, 
and  half-a-dozen  more  in  the  city. 

And  very  charming  was  Mr.  William  Gary,  with  his  quips 
and  his  jests,  and  his  galliards  and  lavoltas ;  over  and  above 
his  rich  inheritance ;  but  then,  charming  also  Mr.  Coffin  of 
Portledge,  though  he  were  a  little  proud  and  stately;  but 
which  of  the  two  should  she  choose  ?  It  would  be  very  plea- 
sant to  be  mistress  of  Clovelly  Court ;  but  just  as  pleasant  to 
find  herself  lady  of  Portledge,  where  the  Coffins  had  lived  ever 
since  Noah's  flood  (if,  indeed,  they  had  not  merely  returned 
thither  after  that  temporary  displacement),  and  to  bring  her 
wealth  into  a  family  which  was  as  proud  of  its  antiquity  as  any 
nobleman  in  Devon,  and  might  have  made  a  fourth  to  that 
famous  trio  of  Devonshire  Cs,  of  which  it  is  written, — 

"  Crocker,  Cruwys,  and  Copplestone, 
When  the  Conqueror  came  were  all  at  home." 


CHAP.  IV.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  77 

And  Mr.  Hugh  Fortescue,  too — people  said  that  he  was 
certain  to  become  a  great  soldier — perhaps  as  great  as  his 
brother  Arthur — and  that  would  be  pleasant  enough,  too, 
though  he  was  but  the  younger  son  of  an  innumerable  family : 
but  then,  so  was  Amyas  Leigh.  Ah,  poor  Amyas  !  Her  girls' 
fancy  for  him  had  vanished,  or  rather,  perhaps,  it  was  very  much 
what  it  always  had  been,  only  that  four  or  five  more  girl's 
fancies  beside  it  had  entered  in,  and  kept  it  in  due  subjection. 
But  still,  she  could  not  help  thinking  a  good  deal  about  him, 
and  his  voyage,  and  the  reports  of  his  great  strength,  and 
beauty,  and  valour,  which  had  already  reached  her  in  that  out- 
of-the-way  corner  ;  and  though  she  was  not  in  the  least  in  love 
with  him,  she  could  not  help  hoping  that  he  had  at  least  (to 
put  her  pretty  little  thought  in  the  mildest  shape)  not  alto- 
gether forgotten  her;  and  was  hungering,  too,  with  all  her 
fancy,  to  give  him  no  peace  till  he  had  told  her  all  the  wonder- 
ful things  which  he  had  seen  and  done  in  this  ever-memorable 
voyage.  So  that  altogether,  it  was  no  wonder,  if  in  her  last 
night's  dream  the  figure  of  Amyas  had  been  even  more  forward 
and  troublesome  than  that  of  Frank  or  the  rest. 

But,  moreover,  another  figure  had  been  forward  and  trouble- 
some enough  in  last  night's  sleep -world ;  and  forward  and 
troublesome  enough,  too,  now  in  to-day's  waking-world,  namely, 
Eustace,  the  rejected.  How  strange  that  she  should  have 
dreamt  of  him  the  night  before  !  and  dreamt,  too,  of  his  fight- 
ing with  Mr.  Frank  and  Mr.  Amyas  !  It  must  be  a  warning 
— see,  she  had  met  him  the  very  next  day  in  this  strange  way ; 
so  the  first  half  of  her  dream  had  come  true  ;  and  after  what 
had  past,  she  only  had  to  breathe  a  whisper,  and  the  second 
part  of  the  dream  would  come  true  also.  If  she  wished  for  a 
passage  of  arms  in  her  own  honour,  she  could  easily  enough 
compass  one  :  not  that  she  would  do  it  for  worlds  !  And  after 
all,  though  Mr.  Eustace  had  been  very  rude  and  naughty,  yet 
still  it  was  not  his  own  fault ;  he  could  not  help  being  in  love 
with  her.  And — and,  in  short,  the  poor  little  maid  felt  herself 
one  of  the  most  important  personages  on  earth,  with  all  the 
cares  (or  hearts)  of  the  country  in  her  keeping,  and  as  much 
perplexed  with  matters  of  weight  as  ever  was  any  Cleophila,  or 
Dianeme,  Fiordispina  or  Flourdeluce,  in  verse  run  tame,  or 
prose  run  mad. 

Poor  little  Rose  !  Had  she  but  had  a  mother  !  But  she 
was  to  learn  her  lesson,  such  as  it  was,  in  another  school.  She 
was  too  shy  (too  proud  perhaps)  to  tell  her  aunt  her  mighty 


78  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAF.  IV. 

troubles ;  but  a  counsellor  she  must  have ;  and  after  sitting 
with  her  head  in  her  hands,  for  half-an-hour  or  more,  she  arose 
suddenly,  and  started  off  along  the  cliffs  towards  Marsland.  She 
would  go  and  see  Lucy  Passmore,  the  white  witch ;  Lucy  knew 
everything ;  Lucy  would  tell  her  what  to  do ;  perhaps  even 
whom  to  marry. 

Lucy  was  a  fat,  jolly  woman  of  fifty,  with  little  pig-eyes, 
which  twinkled  like  sparks  of  fire,  and  eyebrows  which  sloped 
upwards  and  outwards,  like  those  of  a  satyr,  as  if  she  had  been 
(as  indeed  she  had)  all  her  life  looking  out  of  the  corners  of  her 
eyes.  Her  qualifications  as  white  witch  were  boundless  cunning, 
equally  boundless  good  nature,  considerable  knowledge  of  human 
weaknesses,  some  mesmeric  power,  some  skill  in  "yarbs,"  as  she 
called  her  simples,  a  firm  faith  in  the  virtue  of  her  own  incanta- 
tions, and  the  faculty  of  holding  her  tongue.  By  dint  of  these 
she  contrived  to  gain  a  fair  share  of  money,  and  also  (which  she 
liked  even  better)  of  power,  among  the  simple  folk  for  many 
miles  round.  If  a  child  was  scalded,  a  tooth  ached,  a  piece  of 
silver  was  stolen,  a  heifer  shrew-struck,  a  pig  bewitched,  a  young 
damsel  crost  in  love,  Lucy  was  called  in,  and  Lucy  found  a 
remedy,  especially  for  the  latter  complaint.  Now  and  then  she 
found  herself  on  ticklish  ground,  for  the  kind-heartedness  which 
compelled  her  to  help  all  distressed  damsels  out  of  a  scrape, 
sometimes  compelled  her  also  to  help  them  into  one ;  whereon 
enraged  fathers  called  Lucy  ugly  names,  and  threatened  to  send 
her  into  Exeter  gaol  for  a  witch,  and  she  smiled  quietly,  and 
hinted  that  if  she  were  "  like  some  that  were  ready  to  return 
evil  for  evil,  such  talk  as  that  would  bring  no  blessing  on  them 
that  spoke  it;"  which  being  translated  into  plain  English,  meant, 
"  If  you  trouble  me,  I  will  overlook  (i.e.  fascinate)  you,  and  then 
your  pigs  will  die,  your  horses  stray,  your  cream  turn  sour,  your 
barns  be  fired,  your  son  have  St.  Vitus's  dance,  your  daughter 
fits,  and  so  on,  woe  on  woe,  till  you  are  very  probably  starved 
to  death  in  a  ditch,  by  virtue  of  this  terrible  little  eye  of  mine, 
at  which,  in  spite  of  all  your  swearing  and  bullying,  you  know 
you  are  now  shaking  in  your  shoes  for  fear.  So  you  had  much 
better  hold  your  tongue,  give  me  a  drink  of  cider,  and  leave  ill 
alone,  lest  you  make  it  worse." 

Not  that  Lucy  ever  proceeded  to  any  such  fearful  extremities. 
On  the  contrary,  her  boast,  and  her  belief  too,  was,  that  she  was 
sent  into  the  world  to  make  poor  souls  as  happy  as  she  could, 
by  lawful  means,  of  course,  if  possible,  but  if  not — why  unlawful 
ones  were  better  than  none  ;  for  she  "  couldn't  abear  to  see  the 


i-.  iv.]          BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  79 

poor  creatures  taking  on ;  she  was  too,  too  tender-hearted."  And 
so  she  was,  to  every  one  but  her  husband,  a  tall,  simple-hearted 
rabbit-faced  man,  a  good  deal  older  than  herself.  Fully  agreeing 
with  Sir  Richard  Grenvile's  great  axiom,  that  he  who  cannot 
obey  cannot  rxile,  Lucy  had  been  for  the  last  five-and-twenty 
years  training  him  pretty  smartly  to  obey  her,  with  the  intention, 
it  is  to  be  charitably  hoped,  of  letting  him  rule  her  in  turn  when 
his  lesson  was  perfected.  He  bore  his  honours,  however,  meekly 
enough,  having  a  boundless  respect  for  his  wife's  wisdom,  and  a 
firm  belief  in  her  supernatural  powers,  and  let  her  go  her  own 
way  and  earn  her  own  money,  while  he  got  a  little  more  in  a 
truly  pastoral  method  (not  extinct  yet  along  those  lonely  cliffs), 
by  feeding  a  herd  of  some  dozen  donkeys  and  twenty  goats.  The 
donkeys  fetched,  at  each  low-tide,  white  shell-sand  which  was 
to  be  sold  for  manure  to  the  neighbouring  farmers ;  the  goats 
furnished  milk  and  "kiddy-pies;"  and  when  there  was  neither 
milking  nor  sand-carrying  to  be  done,  old  Will  Passmore  just 
sat  iinder  a  sunny  rock  and  watched  the  buck-goats  rattle  their 
horns  together,  thinking  about  nothing  at  all,  and  taking  very 
good  care  all  the  while  neither  to  inquire  nor  to  see  who  came 
in  and  out  of  his  little  cottage  in  the  glen. 

The  Prophetess,  when  Rose  approached  her  oracular  cave,  was 
seated  on  a  tripod  in  front  of  the  fire,  distilling  strong  waters 
out  of  penny  royal.  But  no  sooner  did  her  distinguished  visitor 
appear  at  the  hatch,  than  the  still  was  left  to  take  care  of  itself, 
and  a  clean  apron  and  mutch  having  been  slipt  on,  Lucy  welcomed 
Rose  with  endless  courtesies,  and — "  Bless  my  dear  soul  alive, 
who  ever  would  have  thought  to  see  the  Rose  of  Torridge  to 
my  poor  little  place  !" 

Rose  sat  down  :  and  then  ?  How  to  begin  was  more  than 
she  knew,  aud  she  stayed  silent  a  full  five  minutes,  looking 
earnestly  at  the  point  of  her  shoe,  till  Lucy,  who  was  an  adept  in 
such  cases,  thought  it  best  to  proceed  to  business  at  once,  and 
save  Rose  the  delicate  operation  of  opening  the  ball  herself ;  and 
so,  in  her  own  way,  half  fawning,  half  familiar — 

"  Well,  my  dear  young  lady,  and  what  is  it  I  can  do  for  ye  1 
For  I  guess  you  want  a  bit  of  old  Lucy's  help,  eh  ?  Though  I'm 
most  mazed  to  see  ye  here,  surely.  I  should  have  supposed  that 
pretty  face  could  manage  they  sort  of  matters  for  itself.  Eh  ?" 

Rose,  thus  bluntly  charged,  confessed  at  once,  and  with  many 
blushes  and  hesitations,  made  her  soon  understand  that  what  she 
wanted  was  "  To  have  her  fortune  told." 

"  Eh  1     Oh  !     I  see.     The  Dretty  face  has  managed  it  a  bit 


80  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  iv. 

too  well  already,  eh  ?  Tu  many  o'mun,  pure  fellows  ?  Well, 
tain't  every  mayden  lias  her  pick  and  choose,  like  some  I  know 
of,  as  be  blest  in  love  by  stars  above.  So  you  h'aint  made  up 
your  mind,  then  ?" 

Rose  shook  her  head. 

"  Ah — well,"  she  went  on,  in  a  half  bantering  tone.  "  Not  so 
asy,  is  it,  then  1  One's  gude  for  one  thing,  and  one  for  another, 
eh  ?  One  has  the  blood,  and  another  the  money." 

And  so  the  "  cunning  woman "  (as  she  truly  was),  talking 
half  to  herself,  ran  over  all  the  names  which  she  thought  likely, 
peering  at  Rose  all  the  while  out  of  the  corners  of  her  foxy 
bright  eyes,  while  Rose  stirred  the  peat  ashes  steadfastly  with  the 
point  of  her  little  shoe,  half  angry,  half  ashamed,  half  frightened, 
to  find  that  "  the  cunning  woman  "  had  guessed  so  well  both  her 
suitors  and  her  thoughts  about  them,  and  tried  to  look  uncon- 
cerned at  each  name  as  it  came  out. 

"  Well,  well,"  said  Lucy,  who  -took  nothing  by  her  move, 
simply  because  there  was  nothing  to  take  ;  "  think  over  it — 
think  over  it,  my  dear  life ;  and  if  you  did  set  your  mind  on 
any  one — why,  then — then  maybe  I  might  help  you  to  a  sight 
of  him." 

"A  sight  of  him?" 

"  His  sperrit,  dear  life,  his  sperrit  only,  I  mane.  I  'udn't 
have  no  keeping  company  in  my  house,  no,  not  for  gowld  un- 
towld,  I  'udn't ;  but  the  sperrit  of  mun — to  see  whether  mun 
would  be  true  or  not,  you'd  like  to  know  that,  now,  'udn't  you, 
my  darling?" 

Rose  sighed,  and  stirred  the  ashes  about  vehemently. 

"  I  must  first  know  who  it  is  to  be.  If  you  could  show  me 
that — now 

"  Oh,  I  can  show  ye  that,  tu,  I  can.  Ben  there's  a  way  to  't, 
a  sure  way;  but  'tis  mortal  cold  for  the  time  o'  year,  you  zee." 

"  But  what  is  it,  then  1"  said  Rose,  who  had  in  her  heart 
been  longing  for  something  of  that  very  kind,  and  had  half  made 
up  her  mind  to  ask  for  a  charm. 

"  Why,  you'm  not  afraid  to  goo  into  the  say  by  night  for  a 
minute,  are  you  ?  And  to-morrow  night  would  serve,  too  ;  'twill 
be  just  low  tide  to  midnight." 

"  If  you  would  come  with  me  perhaps — 

"  I'll  come,  I'll  come,  and  stand  within  call,  to  be  sure.  Only 
do  ye  mind  this,  dear  soul  alive,  not  to  goo  telling  a  crumb  about 
mun,  noo,  not  for  the  world,  or  yu'll  see  nought  at  all,  indeed, 
now.  And  beside,  there's  a  noxious  business  grow'd  up  against 


CHAi'.  iv. J  BEING  CROST  IN  LoVK.  81 

me  up  to  Chapel  there ;  and  I  hear  tell  how  Mr.  Leigh  saith  I 
shall  to  Exeter  gaol  for  a  witch — did  ye  ever  hear  the  likes  1 — 
because  his  groom  Jan  saith  I  overlooked  muu — the  Papist  dog! 
And  now  never  he  nor  th'  owld  Father  Francis  goo  by  me  with- 
out a  spetting,  and  saying  of  their  Aves  and  Malificas — I  do 
know  what  their  Rooman  Latin  do  mane,  zo  well  as  ever  they, 
I  du  ! — and  a  making  o'  their  charms  and  incantations  to  their 
.saints  and  idols  !  They  be  mortal  feared  of  witches,  they 
Papists,  and  mortal  hard  on  'em,  even  on  a  pure  body  like 
me,  that  doth  a  bit  in  the  white  way;  'case  why  you  see, 
dear  life,"  said  she,  with  one  of  her  humorous  twinkles,  "  tu 
to  a  trade  do  never  agree.  Do  ye  try  my  bit  of  a  charm,  now  ; 
do  ye  !" 

Rose  could  not  resist  the  temptation  ;  and  between  them 
both  the  charm  was  agreed  on,  and  the  next  night  was  fixed 
for  its  trial,  on  the  payment  of  certain  current  coins  of  the 
realm  (for  Lucy,  of  course,  must  live  by  her  trade) ;  and  slip- 
ping a  tester  into  the  dame's  hand  as  earnest,  Rose  went  away 
home,  and  got  there  in  safety. 

But  in  the  meanwhile,  at  the  very  hour  that  Eustace  had 
been  prosecuting  his  suit  in  the  lane  at  Moorwiiistow,  a  very 
different  scene  was  being  enacted  in  Mrs.  Leigh's  room  at 
Burrough. 

For  the  night  before,  Amyas,  as  he  was  going  to. bed,  heard 
his  brother  Frank  in  the  next  room  tune  his  lute,  and  then 
begin  to  sing.  And  both  their  windows  being  open,  and  only 
a  thin  partition  between  the  chambers,  Amyas's  admiring  ears 
came  in  for  every  word  of  the  following  canzonet,  sung  in  that 
delicate  and  mellow  tenor  voice  for  which  Frank  was  famed 
among  all  fair  ladies  : — 

"  Ah,  tyrant  Love,  Megaera's  serpents  bearing, 
Why  thus  requite  my  sighs  with  veuom'd  smart  ? 

Ah,  ruthless  dove,  the  vulture's  talons  wearing, 
Why  flesh  them,  traitress,  in  this  faithful  heart  ? 

Is  this  my  meed  ?     Must  dragons'  teeth  alone 

In  Venus'  lawns  by  lovers'  hands  be  sown  ? 

"  Nay,  gentlest  Cupid  ;  'twas  my  pride  undid  me 
Nay,  guiltless  dove  ;  by  mine  own  wound  I  fell. 

To  worship,  not  to  wed,  Celestials  bid  me  : 
I  dreamt  to  mate  in  heaven,  and  wake  in  hell ; 

For  ever  doom'd,  Ixion-like,  to  reel 

On  mine  own  passions'  ever-burning  wheel. " 

At  which  the  simple  sailor  sighed,  and  longed  that  he 
could  write  such  neat  verses,  and  sing  them  so  sweetly.  How 


82  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.  iv. 

he  would  besiege  the  ear  of  Rose  Salterne  with  amorous  ditties  ! 
But  still,  he  could  not  be  everything ;  and  if  he  had  the  bone 
and  muscle  of  the  family,  it  was  but  fair  that  Frank  should 
have  the  brains  and  voice  ;  and,  after  all,  he  was  bone  of  his 
bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh,  and  it  was  just  the  same  as  if  he  him- 
self could  do  all  the  fine  things  which  Frank  could  do  ;  for  as  long 
as  one  of  the  family  won  honour,  what  matter  which  of  them  it 
was  1  Whereon  he  shouted  through  the  wall,  "  Good  night, 
old  song-thrush';  I  suppose  I  need  not  pay  the  musicians." 

"What,  awake1?"  answered  Frank.  "Come  in  here,  and 
lull  me  to  sleep  with  a  sea-song." 

So  Amyas  went  in,  and  found  Frank  laid  on  the  outside  of 
his  bed  not  yet  undrest. 

" I  am  a  bad  sleeper,"  said  he ;  "I  spend  more  time,  I  fear, 
in  burning  the  midnight  oil  than  prudent  men  should.  Come 
and  be  my  jongleur,  my  minne-singer,  and  tell  me  about  Andes, 
and  cannibals,  and  the  ice-regions,  and  the  fire-regions,  and  the 
paradises  of  the  West." 

So  Amyas  sat  down,  and  told :  but  somehow,  every  story 
which  he  tried  to  tell  came  round,  by  crooked  paths,  yet  sure, 
to  none  other  point  than  Rose  Salterne,  and  how  he  thought  of 
her  here  and  thought  of  her  there,  and  how  he  wondered  what 
she  would  say  if  she  had  seen  him  in  this  adventure,  and  how  he 
longed  to  have  had  her  with  him  to  show  her  that  glorious  sight, 
till  Frank  let  him  have  his  own  way,  and  then  out  came  the  whole 
story  of  the  simple  fellow's  daily  and  hourly  devotion  to  her, 
through  those  three  long  years  of  world-wide  wanderings. 

"  And  oh,  Frank,  I  could  hardly  think  of  anything  but  her 
in  the  church  the  other  day,  God  forgive  me  !  and  it  did  seem 
so  hard  for  her  to  be  the  only  face  which  I  did  not  see — and 
have  not  seen  her  yet,  either." 

"  So  I  thought,  dear  lad,"  said  Frank,  with  one  of  his 
sweetest  smiles ;  "  and  tried  to  get  her  father  to  let  her  imper- 
sonate the  nymph  of  Torridge." 

"  Did  you,  you  dear  kind  fellow  ?  That  would  have  been 
too  delicious." 

"Just  so,  too  delicious;  wherefore,  I  suppose,  it  was 
ordained  not  to  be,  that  which  was  being  delicious  enough." 

"  And  is  she  as  pretty  as  ever  ?" 

"  Ten  times  as  pretty,  dear  lad,  as  half  the  young  fellows 
round  have  discovered.  If  you  mean  to  win  her  and  wear  her 
(and  God  grant  you  may  fare  no  worse  !)  you  will  have  rivals 
enough  to  get  rid  of." 


CHAP.   IV.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  83 

"Humph  !"  said  Amyas,  "  I  hope  I  shall  not  have  to  make 
short  work  with  some  of  them." 

"  I  hope  not,"  said  Frank,  laughing.  "  Now  go  to  bed,  and 
to-morrow  morning  give  your  sword  to  mother  to  keep,  lest  you 
should  be  tempted  to  draw  it  on  any  of  her  Majesty's  lieges." 

"No  fear  of  that,  Frank;  I  am  no  swash-buckler,  thank 
God;  but  if  any  one  gets  in  my  way,  I'll  serve  him  as  the 
mastiff  did  the  terrier,  and  just  drop  him  over  the  quay  into 
the  river,  to  cool  himself,  or  my  name's  not  Amyas." 

And  the  giant  swung  himself  laughing  out  of  the  room,  and 
slept  all  night  like  a  seal,  not  without  dreams,  of  course,  of 
Rose  Salterne. 

The  next  morning,  according  to  his  wont,  he  went  into  his 
mother's  room,  whom  he  was  sure  to  find  up  and  at  her  prayers ; 
for  he  liked  to  say  his  prayers,  too,  by  her  side,  as  he  used  to 
do  when  he  was  a  little  boy.  It  seemed  so  homelike,  he  said, 
after  three  years'  knocking  up  and  down  in  no-man's  land.  But 
coming  gently  to  the  door,  for  fear  of  disturbing  her,  and  enter- 
ing unperceived,  beheld  a  sight  which  stopped  him  short. 

Mrs.  Leigh  was  sitting  in  her  chair,  with  her  face  bowed 
fondly  down  upon  the  head  of  his  brother  Frank,  who  knelt 
before  her,  his  face  buried  in  her  lap.  Amyas  could  see  that 
his  whole  form  was  quivering  with  stifled  emotion.  Their 
mother  was  just  finishing  the  last  words  of  a  well-known  text — 
— "  for  my  sake,  and  the  Gospel's,  shall  receive  a  hundredfold 
in  this  present  life,  fathers,  and  mothers,  and  brothers,  and 
sisters. " 

"But  not  a  wife  !"  interrupted  Frank,  with  a  voice  stifled 
with  sobs ;  "  that  was  too  precious  a  gift  for  even  Him  to 
promise  to  those  who  gave  up  a  first  love  for  His  sake  !" 

"  And  yet,"  said  he,  after  a  moment's  silence,  "  has  He 
not  heaped  me  with  blessings  enough  already,  that  I  must 
repine  and  rage  at  His  refusing  me  one  more,  even  though  that 
one  be — No,  mother  !  I  am  your  son,  and  God's  ;  and  you  shall 
know  it,  even  though  Amyas  never  does  !"  And  he  looked  up 
with  his  clear  blue  eyes  and  white  forehead ;  and  his  face  was 
as  the  face  of  an  angel. 

Both  of  them  saw  that  Amyas  was  present,  and  started  and 
blushed.  His  mother  motioned  him  away  with  her  eyes,  and 
he  went  quietly  out,  as  one  stunned.  Why  had  his  name  been 
mentioned  ? 

Love,  cunning  love,  told  him  all  at  once.  This  was  the 
meaning  of  last  night's  canzonet !  This  was  why  its  words 


84  THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  [CHAP.   IV. 

had  seemed  to  fit  his  own  heart  so  well  !  His  brother  was  his 
rival.  And  he  had  been  telling  him  all  his  love  last  night. 
What  a  stupid  brute  he  was !  How  it  must  have  made  poor 
Frank  wince  !  And  then  Frank  had  listened  so  kindly ;  even 
bid  him  God  speed  in  his  suit.  What  a  gentleman  old  Frank 
was,  to  be  sure  !  No  wonder  the  Queen  was  so  fond  of  him, 

and  all  the  Court  ladies  ! Why,  if  it  came  to  that,  what 

wonder  if  Rose  Salterne  should  be  fond  of  him  too  ?  Hey-day  ! 
"  That  would  be  a  pretty  fish  to  find  in  my  net  when  I  come 
to  haul  it !"  quoth  Amyas  to  himself,  as  he  paced  the  garden; 
and  clutching  desperately  hold  of  his  locks  with  both  hands,  as 
if  to  hold  his  poor  confused  head  on  its  shoulders,  he  strode 
and  tramped  up  and  down  the  shell-paved  garden  walks  for  a 
full  half  hour,  till  Frank's  voice  (as  cheerful  as  ever,  though  he 
more  than  suspected  all)  called  him. 

"  Come  in  to  breakfast,  lad  ;  and  stop  grinding  and  creaking 
upon  those  miserable  limpets,  before  thou  hast  set  every  tooth 
in  my  head  on  edge  !" 

Amyas,  whether  by  dint  of  holding  his  head  straight,  or  by 
higher  means,  had  got  the  thoughts  of  the  said  head  straight 
enough  by  this  time ;  and  in  he  came,  and  fell  to  upon  the 
broiled  fish  and  strong  ale,  with  a  sort  of  fury,  as  determined 
to  do  his  duty  to  the  utmost  in  all  matters  that  day ;  and 
therefore,  of  course,  in  that  most  important  matter  of  bodily 
sustenance ;  while  his  mother  and  Frank  looked  at  him,  not 
without  anxiety  and  even  terror,  doubting  what  turn  his  fancy 
might  have  taken  in  so  new  a  case ;  at  last — 

"  My  dear  Amyas,  you  will  really  heat  your  blood  with  all 
that  strong  ale  !  Remember,  those  who  drink  beer,  think  beer." 

"  Then  they  think  right  good  thoughts,  mother.  And  in 
the  meanwhile,  those  who  drink  water,  think  water.  Eh,  old 
Frank  1  and  here's  your  health." 

"  And  clouds  are  water,"  said  his  mother,  somewhat  reas- 
sured by  his  genuine  good  humour  ;  "and  so  are  rainbows  ;  and 
clouds  are  angels'  thrones,  and  rainbows  the  sign  of  God's  peace 
on  earth." 

Amyas  understood  the  hint,  and  laughed.  "  Then  I'll 
pledge  Frank  out  of  the  next  ditch,  if  it  please  you  and  him. 
But  first — I  say — he  must  hearken  to  a  parable ;  a  manner 
mystery,  miracle  play,  I  have  got  in  my  head,  like  what  they 
have  at  Easter,  to  the  town-hall.  Now  then,  hearken,  madam, 
and  I  and  Frank  will  act."  And  up  rose  Amyas,  and  shoved 
back  his  chair,  and  put  on  a  solemn  face. 


CHAP.  IV.]  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.  85 

Mrs.  Leigh  looked  up,  trembling  ;  and  Frank,  he  scarce 
knew  why,  rose. 

"  No ;  you  pitch  again.  You  are  King  David,  and  sit  still 
upon  your  throne.  David  was  a  great  singer,  you  know,  and  a 
player  on  the  viols  ;  and  ruddy,  too,  and  of  a  fair  countenance  ; 
so  that  will  fit.  Now,  then,  mother,  don't  look  so  frightened. 
I  am  not  going  to  play  Goliath,  for  all  my  cubits ;  I  am  to  pre- 
sent Nathan  the  prophet.  Now,  David,  hearken,  for  I  have  a 
message  unto  thee,  0  King  ! 

"  There  were  two  men  in  one  city,  one  rich,  and  the  other 
poor  :  and  the  rich  man  had  many  flocks  and  herds,  and  all  the 
fine  ladies  in  Whitehall  to  court  if  he  liked  ;  and  the  poor  man 
had  nothing  but " 

And  in  spite  of  his  broad  honest  smile,  Amyas's  deep  voice 
began  to  tremble  and  choke. 

Frank  sprang  up,  and  burst  into  tears  : — "  Oh  !  Amyas,  my 
brother,  my  brother  !  stop  !  I  cannot  endure  this.  Oh,  God  ! 
was  it  not  enough  to  have  entangled  myself  in  this  fatal  fancy, 
but  over  and  above,  I  must  meet  the  shame  of  my  brother's 
discovering  it  1" 

"  What  shame,  then,  I'd  like  to  know  1"  said  Amyas, 
recovering  himself.  "  Look  here,  brother  Frank  !  I've  thought 
it  all  over  in  the  garden ;  and  I  was  an  ass  and  a  braggart  for 
talking  to  you  as  I  did  last  night.  Of  course  you  love  her ! 
Everybody  must ;  and  I  was  a  fool  for  not  recollecting  that ; 
and  if  you  love  her,  your  taste  and  mine  agree,  and  what  can 
be  better  ?  I  think  you  are  a  sensible  fellow  for  loving  her, 
and  you  think  me  one.  And  as  for  who  has  her,  why,  you're 
the  eldest ;  and  first  come  first  served  is  the  rule,  and  best  to 
keep  to  it.  Besides,  brother  Frank,  though  I'm  no  scholar,  yet 
I'm  not  so  blind  but  that  I  tell  the  difference  between  you  and 
me ;  and  of  course  your  chance  against  mine,  for  a  hundred  to 
one ;  and  I  am  not  going  to  be  fool  enough  to  row  against  wind 
and  tide  too.  I'm  good  enough  for  her,  I  hope  ;  but  if  I  am, 
you  are  better,  and  the  good  dog  may  run,  but  it's  the  best 
that  takes  the  hare ;  and  so  I  have  nothing  more  to  do  with 
the  matter  at  all ;  and  if  you  marry  her,  why,  it  will  set  the 
old  house  on  its  legs  again,  and  that's  the  first  thing  to  be 
thought  of,  and  you  may  just  as  well  do  it  as  I,  and  better 
too.  Not  but  that  it's  a  plague,  a  horrible  plague  !"  went  on 
Amyas,  with  a  ludicrously  doleful  visage  ;  "  but  so  are  other 
things  too,  by  the  dozen  ;  it's  all  in  the  day's  work,  as  the 
huntsman  said  when  the  lion  ate  him.  One  would  never  get 


86       THE  TWO  WAYS  OF  BEING  CROST  IN  LOVE.      [CHAP.  iv. 

through  the  furze-croft  if  one  stopped  to  pull  out  the  prickles. 
The  pig  didn't  scramble  out  of  the  ditch  by  squeaking ;  and 
the  less  said  the  sooner  mended  ;  nobody  was  sent  into  the 
world  only  to  suck  honey-pots.  What  must  be  must,  man  is 
but  dust ;  if  you  can't  get  crumb,  you  must  fain  eat  crust.  So 
I'll  go  and  join  the  army  in  Ireland,  and  get  it  out  of  my  head, 
for  cannon  balls  fright  away  love  as  well  as  poverty  does ;  and 
that's  all  I've  got  to  say."  Wherewith  Amyas  sat  down,  and 
returned  to  the  beer  ;  while  Mrs.  Leigh  wept  tears  of  joy. 

"Amyas!  Amyas!"  said  Frank;  "you  must  not  throw 
away  the  hopes  of  years,  and  for  me,  too !  Oh,  how  just  was 
your  parable  !  Ah  !  mother  mine !  to  what  use  is  all  my 
scholarship  and  my  philosophy,  when  this  dear  simple  sailor- 
lad  outdoes  me  at  the  first  trial  of  courtesy  ! " 

"  My  children,  my  children,  which  of  you  shall  I  love  best  ? 
Which  of  you  is  the  more  noble  ?  I  thanked  God  this  morning 
for  having  given  me  one  such  son ;  but  to  have  found  that  I 
possess  two !"  And  Mrs.  Leigh  laid  her  head  on  the  table,  and 
buried  her  face  in  her  hands,  while  the  generous  battle  went  on. 

"  But,  dearest  Amyas  ! — 

"  But,  Frank !  if  you  don't  hold  your  tongue,  I  must  go 
forth.  It  was  quite  trouble  enough  to  make  up  one's  mind, 
without  having  you  afterwards  trying  to  unmake  it  again." 

"  Amyas  !  if  you  give  her  up  to  me,  God  do  so  to  me,  and 
more  also,  if  I  do  not  hereby  give  her  up  to  you  !" 

"He  had  done  it  already — this  morning  !"  said  Mrs.  Leigh, 
looking  up  through  her  tears.  "  He  renounced  her  for  ever  on 
his  knees  before  me  !  only  he  is  too  noble  to  tell  you  so." 

"  The  more  reason  I  should  copy  him,"  said  Amyas,  setting 
his  lips,  and  trying  to  look  desperately  determined,  and  then 
suddenly  jumping  up,  he  leaped  upon  Frank,  and  throwing  his 
arms  round  his  neck,  sobbed  out, -"There,  there,  now!  For 
God's  sake,  let  us  forget  all,  and  think  about  our  mother,  and 
the  old  house,  and  how  we  may  win  her  honour  before  we  die ! 
and  that  will  be  enough  to  keep  our  hands  full,  without  fret- 
ting about  this  woman  and  that. — What  an  ass  I  have  been  for 
years  !  instead  of  learning  my  calling,  dreaming  about  her,  and 
don't  know  at  this  minute  whether  she  cares  more  for  me  than 
she  does  for  her  father's  'prentices  !" 

"  Oh,  Amyas  !  every  word  of  yours  puts  me  to  fresh  shame ! 
Will  you  believe  that  I  know  as  little  of  her  likings  as  you  do?" 

"  Don't  tell  me  that,  and  play  the  devil's  game  by  putting 
fresh  hopes  into  me,  when  I  am  trying  to  kick  them  out.  I 


CHAP.  V.]       CLOVELLY  COURT  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  87 

won't  believe  it.  If  she  is  not  a  fool,  she  must  love  you ;  and 
if  she  don't,  why,  behanged  if  she  is  worth  loving!" 

"  My  dearest  Amyas  !  I  must  ask  you  too  to  make  no  more 
such  speeches  to  me.  All  those  thoughts  I  have  forsworn." 

"  Only  this  morning ;  so  there  is  time  to  catch  them  again 
before  they  are  gone  too  far." 

"Only  this  morning,"  said  Frank,  with  a  quiet  smile  :  "but 
centuries  have  passed  since  then." 

"  Centuries  1     I  don't  see  many  grey  hairs  yet." 

"  I  should  not  have  been  surprised  if  you  had,  though," 
answered  Frank,  in  so  sad  and  meaning  a  tone  that  Amyas 
could  only  answer — 

"  Well,  you  are  an  angel !" 

"  You,  at  least,  are  something  even  more  to  the  purpose,  for 
you  are  a  man !" 

And  both  spoke  truth,  and  so  the  battle  ended ;  and  Frank 
went  to  his  books,  while  Amyas,  who  must  needs  be  doing,  if 
he  was  not  to  dream,  started  off  to  the  dockyard  to  potter  about 
a  new  ship  of  Sir  Richard's,  and  forget  his  woes,  in  the  capacity 
of  Sir  Oracle  among  the  sailors.  And  so  he  had  played  his 
move  for  Rose,  even  as  Eustace  had,  and  lost  her  :  but  not  as 
Eustace  had. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CLOVELLY  COURT  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME. 

"  It  was  among  the  ways  of  good  Queen  Bess, 
Who  ruled  as  well  as  ever  mortal  can,  sir, 
When  she  was  stogg'd,  and  the  country  in  a  mess, 
She  was  wont  to  send  for  a  Devon  man,  sir." 

West  Country  Song. 

THE  next  morning  Amyas  Leigh  was  not  to  be  found.  Not 
that  he  had  gone  out  to  drown  himself  in  despair,  or  even  to 
bemoan  himself  "down  by  the  Torridge  side."  He  had  simply 
ridden  off,  Frank  found,  to  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  at  Stow :  his 
mother  at  once  divined  the  truth,  that  he  was  gone  to  try  for  a 
post  in  the  Irish  army,  and  sent  off  Frank  after  him  to  bring 
him  home  again,  and  make  him  at  least  reconsider  himself. 

So  Frank  took  horse  and  rode  thereon  ten  miles  or  more : 
and  then,  as  there  were  no  inns  on  the  road  in  those  days,  or 
indeed  in  these,  and  he  had  some  ten  miles  more  of  hilly  road 
before  him,  he  turned  down  the  hill  towards  Clovelly  Court,  to 


88  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  V. 

obtain,  after  the  hospitable  humane  fashion  of  those  days,  good 
entertainment  for  man  and  horse  from  Mr.  Gary  the  squire. 

And  when  he  walked  self-invited,  like  the  loud -shouting 
Menelaus,  in  the  long  dark  wainscoted  hall  of  the  Court,  the 
first  object  he  beheld  was  the  mighty  form  of  Amyas,  who, 
seated  at  the  long  table,  was  alternately  burying  his  face  in  a 
pasty,  and  the  pasty  in  his  face,  his  sorrows  having,  as  it  seemed, 
only  sharpened  his  appetite,  while  young  Will  Gary,  kneeling 
on  the  opposite  bench,  with  his  elbows  on  the  table,  was  in  that 
graceful  attitude  laying  down  the  law  fiercely  to  him  in  a  low 
voice. 

"  Hillo  !  lad,"  cried  Amyas ;  "  come  hither  and  deliver  me 
out  of  the  hands  of  this  fire-eater,  who  I  verily  believe  will  kill 
me,  if  I  do  not  let  him  kill  some  one  else." 

"  Ah !  Mr.  Frank,"  said  Will  Gary,  who,  like  all  other  young 
gentlemen  of  these  parts,  held  Frank  in  high  honour,  and  con- 
sidered him  a  very  oracle  and  cynosure  of  fashion  and  chivalry, 
"  welcome  here :  I  was  just  longing  for  you,  too ;  I  wanted 
your  advice  on  half-a-dozen  matters.  Sit  down,  and  eat.  There 
is  the  ale." 

"None  so  early,  thank  you." 

"Ah  no!"  said  Amyas,  burying  his  head  in  the  tankard, 
and  then  mimicking  Frank,  "  avoid  strong  ale  o'  mornings.  It 
heats  the  blood,  thickens  the  animal  spirits,  and  obfuscates  the 
cerebrum  with  frenetical  and  lymphatic  idols,  which  cloud  the 
quintessential  light  of  the  pure  reason.  Eh?  young  Plato, 
young  Daniel,  come  hither  to  judgment !  And  yet,  though  I 
cannot  see  through  the  bottom  of  the  tankard  already,  I  can 
see  plain  enough  still  to  see  this,  that  Will  shall  not  fight." 

"  Shall  I  not,  eh  ?  who  says  that  1  Mr.  Frank,  I  appeal  to 
you,  now  ;  only  hear." 

"  We  are  in  the  judgment-seat,"  said  Frank,  settling  to  the 
pasty.  "  Proceed,  appellant." 

"  Well,  I  was  telling  Amyas,  that  Tom  Coffin,  of  Portledge ; 
I  will  stand  him  no  longer." 

"  Let  him  be,  then,"  said  Amyas ;  "  he  could  stand  very 
well  by  himself,  when  I  saw  him  last." 

"  Plague  on  you,  hold  your  tongue.  Has  he  any  right  to 
look  at  me  as  he  does,  whenever  I  pass  him  1" 

"  That  depends  on  how  he  looks  ;  a  cat  may  look  at  a  king, 
provided  she  don't  take  him  for  a  mouse." 

"  Oh,  I  know  how  he  looks,  and  what  he  means  too,  and 
he  shall  stop,  or  I  will  stop  him.  And  the  other  day,  when  I 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  89 

spoke  of  Rose  Salterne."— "  Ah  !"  groaned  Frank,  "  Ate's 
apple  again  !" — "(never  mind  what  I  said)  he  burst  out  laugh- 
ing in  my  face  ;  and  is  not  that  a  fair  quarrel  1  And  what  is 
more,  I  know  that  he  wrote  a  sonnet,  and  sent  it  to  her  to 
Stow  by  a  market  woman.  What  right  has  he  to  write  sonnets 
when  I  can't  1  It's  not  fair  play,  Mr.  Frank,  or  I  am  a  Jew, 
and  a  Spaniard,  and  a  Papist;  it'-s  not!"  And  Will  smote 
the  table  till  the  plates  danced  again. 

"  My  dear  knight  of  the  burning  pestle,  I  have  a  plan,  a 
device,  a  disentanglement,  according  to  most  approved  rules  of 
chivalry.  Let  us  fix  a  day,  and  summon  by  tuck  of  drum  all 
young  gentlemen  under  the  age  of  thirty,  dwelling  within  fifteen 
miles  of  the  habitation  of  that  peerless  Oriana." 

"And  all  'prentice-boys  too,"  cried  Amyas  out  of  the 
pasty. 

"And  all  'prentice-boys.  The  bold  lads  shall  fight  first, 
with  good  quarterstaves,  in  Bideford  Market,  till  all  heads  are 
broken ;  and  the  head  which  is  not  broken,  let  the  back  belong- 
ing to  it  pay  the  penalty  of  the  noble  member's  cowardice. 
After  which  grand  tournament,  to  which  that  of  Tottenham  shall 
be  but  a  flea-bite  and  a  batrachomyomachy " 

"  Confound  you,  and  your  long  words,  sir,"  said  poor  Will, 
"I  know  you  are  flouting  me." 

"  Pazienza,  Signor  Cavaliere ;  that  which  is  to  come  is  no 
flouting,  but  bloody  and  warlike  earnest.  For  afterwards  all 
the  young  gentlemen  shall' adjourn  into  a  convenient  field,  sand, 
or  bog— which  last  will  be  better,  as  no  man  will  be  able  to 
run  away,  if  he  be  up  to  his  knees  in  soft  peat :  and  there 
stripping  to  our  shirts,  with  rapiers  of  equal  length  and  keenest 
temper,  each  shall  slay  his  man,  catch  who  catch  can,  and  the 
conquerors  fight  again,  like  a  most  valiant  main  of  gamecocks 
as  we  are,  till  all  be  dead,  and  out  of  their  woes ;  after  which 
the  survivor,  bewailing  before  heaven  and  earth  the  cruelty  of 
our  Fair  Oriana,  and  the  slaughter  which  her  basiliscine  eyes 
have  caused,  shall  fall  gracefully  upon  his  sword,  and  so  end 
the  woes  of  this  our  lovelorn  generation.  Placetne  Domini? 
as  they  used  to  ask  in  the  Senate  at  Oxford." 

"  Really,"  said  Gary,  "  this  is  too  bad." 

"  So  is,  pardon  me,  your  fighting  Mr.  Coffin  with  anything 
longer  than  a  bodkin." 

"  Bodkins  are  too  short  for  such  fierce  Bobadils,"  said 
Amyas  ;  "  they  would  close  in  so  near,  that  we  should  have 
them  falling  to  fisticuffs  after  the  first  bout." 


90  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

"  Then  let  them  fight  with  squirts  across  the  market-place ; 
for  by  heaven  and  the  queen's  laws,  they  shall  fight  with 
nothing  else." 

"  My  dear  Mr.  Gary,"  went  on  Frank,  suddenly  changing 
his  bantering  tone  to  one  of  the  most  winning  sweetness  ;  "  do 
not  fancy  that  I  cannot  feel  for  you  ;  or  that  I,  as  well  as  you, 
have  not  known  the  stings  of  love  and  the  bitterer  stings  of 
jealousy.  But  oh,  Mr.  Gary,  does  it  not  seem  to  you  an  awful 
thing  to  waste  selfishly  upon  your  own  quarrel  that  divine 
wrath  which,  as  Plato  says,  is  the  very  root  of  all  virtues,  and 
which  has  been  given  you,  like  all  else  which  you  have,  that 
you  may  spend  it  in  the  service  of  her  whom  all  bad  souls  fear, 
and  all  virtuous  souls  adore, — our  peerless  queen  ?  Who  dares, 
while  she  rules  England,  call  his  sword  or  his  courage  his  own, 
or  any  one's  but  hers.  Are  there  no  Spaniards  to  conquer,  no 
wild  Irish  to  deliver  from  their  oppressors,  that  two  gentlemen 
of  Devon  can  find  no  better  place  to  flesh  their  blades  than 
in  each  other's  valiant  and  honourable  hearts  ?" 

"  By  heaven  !"  cried  Amyas,  "  Frank  speaks  like  a  book  ; 
and  for  me,  I  do  think  that  Christian  gentlemen  may  leave 
love  quarrels  to  bulls  and  rams." 

"  And  that  the  heir  of  Clovelly,"  said  Frank,  smiling,  "  may 
find  more  noble  examples  to  copy  than  the  stags  in  his  own 
deer-park." 

"  Well,"  said  Will  penitently,  "you  are  a  great  scholar,  Mr. 
Frank,  and  you  speak  like  one  ;  but  gentlemen  must  fight 
sometimes,  or  where  would  be  their  honour." 

"  I  speak,"  said  Frank  a  little  proudly,  "  not  merely  as  a 
scholar,  but  as  a  gentleman,  and  one  who  has  fought  ere  now, 
and  to  whom  it  has  happened,  Mr.  Gary,  to  kill  his  man  (on 
whose  soul  may  God  have  mercy);  but  it  is  my  pride  to 
remember  that  I  have  never  yet  fought  in  my  own  quarrel,  and 
my  trust  in  God  that  I  never  shall.  For  as  there  is  nothing 
more  noble  and  blessed  than  to  fight  in  behalf  of  those  whom 
we  love,  so  to  fight  in  our  own  private  behalf  is  a  thing  not  to 
be  allowed  to  a  Christian  man,  unless  refusal  imports  utter  loss 
of  life  or  honour ;  and  even  then,  it  may  be  (though  I  would 
not  lay  a  burden  on  any  man's  conscience),  it  is  better  not  to 
resist  evil,  but  to  overcome  it  with  good." 

"  And  I  can  tell  you,  Will,"  said  Amyas,  "  I  am  not  troubled 
with  fear  of  ghosts ;  but  when  I  cut  off  the  Frenchman's 
head,  I  said  to  myself,  '  If  that  braggart  had  been  slander- 
ing me  instead  of  her  gracious  Majesty,  I  should  expect  to 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  91 

see  that  head  lying  on  my  pillow  every  time  I  went  to  bed  at 
night." 

"God  forbid!"  said  Will,  with  a  shudder.  "But  what 
shall  I  do  ?  for  to  the  market  to-morrow  I  will  go,  if  it  were 
choke-full  of  Coffins,  and  a  ghost  in  each  coffin  of  the  lot." 

"Leave  the  matter  to  me,"  said  Amyas.  "I  have  my 
device,  as  well  as  scholar  Frank  here  ;  and  if  there  be,  as  I 
suppose  there  must  be,  a  quarrel  in  the  market  to-morrow,  see 
if  I  do  not " 

"  Well,  you  are  two  good  fellows,"  said  Will.  "  Let  us 
have  another  tankard  in." 

"  And  drink  the  health  of  Mr.  Coffin,  and  all  gallant  lads 
of  the  North,"  said  Frank  ;  "  and  now  to  my  business.  I  have 
to  take  this  runaway  youth  here  home  to  his  mother ;  and  if 
he  will  not  go  quietly,  I  have  orders  to  carry  him  across  my 
saddle." 

"  I  hope  your  nag  has  a  strong  back,  then,"  said  Amyas ; 
"  but  I  must  go  on  and  see  Sir  Richard,  Frank.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  jest  as  we  have  been  doing,  but  my  mind  is  made  up." 

"Stop,  "said  Cary.  "You  must  stay  here  to-night ;  first, 
for  good  fellowship's  sake  ;  and  next,  because  I  want  the  advice 
of  our  Phoenix  here,  our  oracle,  our  paragon.  There,  Mr. 
Frank,  can  you  construe  that  for  me1?  Speak  low,  though, 
gentlemen  both ;  there  comes  my  father ;  you  had  better  give 
me  the  letter  again.  Well,  father,  whence  this  morning?" 

"  Eh,  company  here  1  Young  men,  you  are  always  welcome, 
and  such  as  you.  Would  there  were  more  of  your  sort  in  these 
dirty  times.  How  is  your  good  mother,  Frank,  eh?  Where 
have  I  been,  Will?  Round  the  house -farm,  to  look  at  the 
beeves.  That  sheeted  heifer  of  Prowse's  is  all  wrong ;  her  coat 
stares  like  a  hedgepig's.  Tell  Jewell  to  go  up  and  bring  her  in 
before  night.  And  then  up  the  forty  acres  ;  sprang  two  coveys, 
and  picked  a  leash  out  of  them.  The  Irish  hawk  flies  as  wild 
as  any  haggard  still,  and  will  never  make  a  bird.  I  had  to 
hand  her  to  Tom,  and  take  the  little  peregrine.  Give  me 
a  Clovelly  hawk  against  the  world,  after  all ;  and — heigh 
ho,  I  am  very  hungry !  Half-past  twelve,  and  dinner  not 
served  ?  What,  Master  Amyas,  spoiling  your  appetite  with 
strong  ale  ?  Better  have  tried  sack,  lad ;  have  some  now 
with  me." 

And  the  worthy  old  gentleman,  having  finished  his  oration, 
settled  himself  on  a  great  bench  inside  the  chimney,  and  put 
his  hawk  on  a  perch  over  his  head,  while  his  cockers  coiled 


92  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

themselves  up  close  to  the  warm  peat-ashes,  and  his  son  set  to 
work  "ta-  pull  off  his  father's  boots,  amid  sundry  warnings  to 
take  care  of  his  corns. 

"  Come,  Master  Amyas,  a  pint  of  white  wine  and  sugar, 
and  a  bit  of  a  shoeing-horn  to  it  ere  we  dine.  Some  pickled 
prawns,  now,  or  a  rasher  off  the  coals,  to  whet  you  ?" 

"  Thank  you,"  quoth  Amyas ;  "  but  I  have  drunk  a  mort 
of  outlandish  liquors,  better  and  worse,  in  the  last  three  years, 
and  yet  never  found  aught  to  come  up  to  good  ale,  which  needs 
neither  shoeing-horn  before  nor  after,  but  takes  care  of  itself, 
and  of  all  honest  stomachs  too,  I  think." 

"  You  speak  like  a  book,  boy,"  said  old  Gary ;  "  and  after 
all,  what  a  plague  comes  of  these  new-fangled  hot  wines,  and 
aqua  vitses,  which  have  come  in  since  the  wars,  but  maddening 
of  the  brains,  and  fever  of  the  blood  ?" 

"  I  fear  we  have  not  seen  the  end  of  that  yet,"  said  Frank. 
"  My  friends  write  me  from  the  Netherlands  that  our  men  are 
falling  into  a  swinish  trick  of  swilling  like  the  Hollanders. 
Heaven  grant  that  they  may  not  bring  home  the  fashion  with 
them." 

"  A  man  must  drink,  they  say,  or  die  of  the  ague,  in  those 
vile  swamps,"  said  Amyas.  "  When  they  get  home  here,  they 
will  not  need  it." 

"  Heaven  grant  it,"  said  Frank  ;  "  I  should  be  sorry  to  see 
Devonshire  a  drunken  county  ;  and  there  are  many  of  our  men 
out  there  with  Mr.  Champernoun." 

"  Ah,"  said  Gary,  "  there,  as  in  Ireland,  we  are  proving  her 
Majesty's  saying  true,  that  Devonshire  is  her  right  hand,  and 
the  young  children  thereof  like  the  arrows  in  the  hand  of  the 
giant." 

"  They  may  well  be,"  said  his  son,  "  when  some  of  them  are 
giants  themselves,  like  my  tall  schoolfellow  opposite." 

"  He  will  be  up  and  doing  again  presently,  I'll  warrant 
him,"  said  old  Gary. 

"And  that  I  shall,"  quoth  Amyas.  "  I  have  been  devising 
brave  deeds ;  and  see  in  the  distance  enchanters  to  be  bound, 
dragons  choked,  empires  conquered,  though  not  in  Holland." 

"  You  do  ?"  asked  Will  a  little  sharply ;  for  lie  had  had 
a  half  suspicion  that  more  was  meant  than  met  the  ear. 

"Yes,"  said  Amyas,  turning  off  his  jest  again,  "I  go  to 
what  Raleigh  calls  the  Land  of  the  Nymphs.  Another  month, 
I  hope,  will  see  me  abroad  in  Ireland." 

"  Abroad  ?     Call  it  rather  at  home,"  said  old  Gary  ;  "  for  it 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  93 

is  full  of  Devon  men  from  end  to  end,  and  you  will  be  among 
friends  all  day  long.  George  Bourchier  from  Tawstock  has  the 
army  now  in  Minister,  and  Warham  St.  Leger  is  Marshal ; 
George  Carew  is  with  Lord  Grey  of  Wilton  (Poor  Peter  Carew 
was  killed  at  Glendalough) ;  and  after  the  defeat  last  year, 
when  that  villain  Desmond  cut  off  Herbert  and  Price,  the  com- 
panies were  made  up  with  six  hundred  Devon  men,  and  Arthur 
Fortescue  at  their  head  ;  so  that  the  old  county  holds  her 
head  as  proudly  in  the  Land  of  Ire  as  she  does  in  the  Low 
Countries  and  the  Spanish  Main." 

"And  where,"  asked  Amyas,  "is  Davils  of  Marsland,  who 
used  to  teach  me  how  to  catch  trout,  when  I  was  staying  down 
at  Stow  1  He  is  in  Ireland,  too,  is  he  not  ?" 

"  Ah,  my  lad,"  said  Mr.  Gary,  "  that  is  a  sad  story.  I 
thought  all  England  had  known  it." 

"  You  forget,  sir,  I  am  a  stranger.  Surely  he  is  not 
dead?" 

"  Murdered  foully,  lad  !  Murdered  like  a  dog,  and  by  the 
man  whom  he  had  treated  as  his  son,  and  who  pretended,  the 
false  knave  !  to  call  him  father." 

"  His  blood  is  avenged  ?"  said  Amyas  fiercely. 

"  No,  by  heaven,  not  yet !  Stay,  don't  cry  out  again.  I 
am  getting  old — I  must  tell  my  stoiy  my  own  way.  It  was 
last  July, — was  it  not,  Will  1 — Over  comes  to  Ireland  Saunders, 
one  of  those  Jesuit  foxes,  as  the  Pope's  legate,  with  money  and 
bulls,  and  a  banner  hallowed  by  the  Pope,  and  the  devil  knows 
what  beside ;  and  with  him  James  Fitzmaurice,  the  same  fellow 
who  had  sworn  on  his  knees  to  Perrott,  in  the  church  at 
Kilmallock,  to  be  a  true  liegeman  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  con- 
firmed it  by  all  his  saints,  and  such  a  world  of  his  Irish  howl- 
ing, that  Perrott  told  me  he  was  fain  to  stop  his  own  ears. 
Well,  he  had  been  practising  with  the  King  of  France,  but  got 
nothing  but  laughter  for  his  pains,  and  so  went  over  to  the 
Most  Catholic  King,  and  promises  him  to  join  Ireland  to  Spain, 
and  set  up  Popery  again,  and  what  not.  And  he,  I  suppose, 
thinking  it  better  that  Ireland  should  belong  to  him  than  to 
the  Pope's  bastard,  fits  him  out,  and  sends  him  off  on  such 
another  errand  as  Stukely's, — though  I  will  say,  for  the  honour 
of  Devon,  if  Stukely  lived  like  a  fool,  he  died  like  an  honest 
man." 

"  Sir  Thomas  Stukely  dead  too  T  said  Amyas. 

"  Wait  a  while,  lad,  and  you  shall  have  that  tragedy  after- 
wards. Well,  where  was  1 1  Oh,  Fitzmaurice  and  the  Jesuits 


94  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  V. 

land  at  Srnerwick,  with  three  ships,  choose  a  place  for  a  fort, 
bless  it  with  their  holy  water,  and  their  moppings  and  their 
scourings,  and  the  rest  of  it,  to  purify  it  from  the  stain  of 
heretic  dominion ;  but  in  the  meanwhile  one  of  the  Courtenays, 
— a  Courtenay  of  Haccombe,  was  it  1- — or  a  Courtenay  of 
Boconnock  1  Silence,  Will,  I  shall  have  it  in  a  minute — yes,  a 
Courtenay  of  Haccombe  it  was,  lying  at  anchor  near  by,  in  a 
ship  of  war  of  his,  cuts  out  the  three  ships,  and  cuts  off  the 
Dons  from  the  sea.  John  and  James  Desmond,  with  some 
small  rabble,  go  over  to  the  Spaniards.  Earl  Desmond  will 
not  join  them,  but  will  not  fight  them,  and  stands  by  to  take 
the  winning  side ;  and  then  in  comes  poor  Davils,  sent  down 
by  the  Lord  Deputy  to  charge  Desmond  and  his  brothers,  in 
the  queen's  name,  to  assault  the  Spaniards.  Folks  say  it  was 
rash  of  his  Lordship :  but  I  say,  what  could  be  better  done  1 
Every  one  knows  that  there  never  was  a  stouter  or  shrewder 
soldier  than  Davils ;  and  the  young  Desmonds,  I  have  heard 
him  say  many  a  time,  used  to  look  on  him  as  their  father.  But 
he  found  out  what  it  was  to  trust  Englishmen  turned  Irish. 
Well,  the  Desmonds  found  out  on  a  sudden  that  the  Dons  were 
such  desperate  Paladins,  that  it  was  madness  to  meddle,  though 
they  were  five  to  one ;  and  poor  Davils,  seeing  that  there  was 
no  fight  in  them,  goes  back  for  help,  and  sleeps  that  night  at 
some  place  called  Tralee.  Arthur  Carter  of  Bideford,  St.  Leger's 
lieutenant,  as  stout  an  old  soldier  as  Davils  himself,  sleeps  in 
the  same  bed  with  him ;  the  lacquey-boy,  who  is  now  with  Sir 
Richard  at  Stow,  on  the  floor  at  their  feet.  But  in  the  dead 
of  night,  who  should  come  in  but  James  Desmond,  sword  in 
hand,  with  a  dozen  of  his  ruffians  at  his  heels,  each  with  his 
glib  over  his  ugly  face,  and  his  skene  in  his  hand.  Davils 
springs  up  in  bed,  and  asks  but  this,  '  What  is  the  matter,  my 
son  ?'  whereon  the  treacherous  villain,  without  giving  him  time 
to  say  a  prayer,  strikes  at  him,  naked  as  he  was,  crying,  '  Thou 
shalt  be  my  father  no  longer,  nor  I  thy  son  !  Thou  shalt  die  !' 
and  at  that  all  the  rest  fall  on  him.  The  poor  little  lad  (so  he 
says)  leaps  up  to  cover  his  master  with  his  naked  body,  gets 
three  or  four  stabs  of  skenes,  and  so  falls  for  dead ;  with  his 
master  and  Captain  Carter,  who  were  dead  indeed — God  reward 
them  !  After  that  the  ruffians  ransacked  the  house,  till  they 
had  murdered  every  Englishmen  in  it,  the  lacquey-boy  only 
excepted,  who  crawled  out,  wounded  as  he  was,  through  a 
window  ;  while  Desmond,  if  you  will  believe  it,  went  back,  up 
to  his  elbows  in  blood,  and  vaunted  his  deeds  to  the  Spaniards, 


CHAP,  v.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  95 

and  asked  them — '  There  !  Will  you  take  that  as  a  pledge  that 
I  am  faithful  to  you  V  And  that,  my  lad,  was  the  end  of 
Henry  Davils,  and  will  be  of  all  who  trust  to  the  faith  of  wild 
savages." 

"  I  would  go  a  hundred  miles  to  see  that  Desmond  hanged  !" 
said  Amyas,  while  great  tears  ran  down  his  face.  "  Poor  Mr. 
Davils  !  And  now,  what  is  the  story  of  Sir  Thomas  V 

"Your  brother  must  tell  you  that,  lad;  I  am  somewhat 
out  of  breath." 

"  And  I  have  a  right  to  tell  it,"  said  Frank,  with  a  smile. 
"Do  you  know  that  I  was  very  near  being  Earl  of  the  bog  of 
Allen,  and  one  of  the  peers  of  the  realm  to  King  Buoncompagna, 
son  and  heir  to  his  Holiness  Pope  Gregory  the  Thirteenth  1" 

"No,  surely  !" 

"  As  I  am  a  gentleman.  When  I  was  at  Rome  I  saw  poor 
Stukely  often ;  and  this  and  more  he  offered  me  on  the  part 
(as  he  said)  of  the  Pope,  if  I  would  just  oblige  him  in  the  two 
little  matters  of  being  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  Church,  and 
joining  the  invasion  of  Ireland." 

"  Poor  deluded  heretic,"  said  Will  Gary,  "  to  have  lost  an 
earldom  for  your  family  by  such  silly  scruples  of  loyalty  !" 

"  It  is  not  a  matter  for  jesting,  after  all,"  said  Frank  ;  "but 
I  saw  Sir  Thomas  often,  and  I  cannot  believe  he  was  in  his 
senses,  so  frantic  was  his  vanity  and  his  ambition ;  and  all  the 
while,  in  private  matters  as  honourable  a  gentleman  as  ever. 
However,  he  sailed  at  last  for  Ireland,  with  his  eight  hundred 
Spaniards  and  Italians  ;  and  what  is  more,  I  know  that  the 
King  of  Spain  paid  their  charges.  Marquis  Vinola — James 
Buoncompagna,  that  is — stayed  quietly  at  Rome,  preferring 
that  Stukely  should  conquer  his  paternal  heritage  of  Ireland 
for  him  while  he  took  care  of  the  bona  robas  at  home.  I  went 
down  to  Civita  Vecchia  to  see  him  off ;  and  though  his  younger 
by  many  years,  I  could  not  but  take  the  liberty  of  entreating 
him,  as  a  gentleman  and  a  man  of  Devon,  to  consider  his  faith 
to  his  queen  and  the  honour  of  his  country.  There  were  high 
words  between  us ;  God  forgive  me  if  I  spoke  too  fiercely,  for  I 
never  saw  him  again." 

"  Too  fiercely  to  an  open  traitor,  Frank  1  Why  not  have 
run  him  through?" 

"  Nay,  I  had  no  clean  life  for  Sundays,  Amyas ;  so  I  could 
not  throw  away  my  week-day  one;  and  as  for  the  weal  of 
England,  I  knew  that  it  was  little  he  would  damage  it,  and 
told  him  so.  And  at  that  he  waxed  utterly  mad,  for  it  touched 


96  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  V. 

his  pride,  and  swore  that  if  the  wind  had  not  been  fair  for 
sailing,  he  would  have  fought  me  there  and  then ;  to  which  I 
could  only  answer,  that  I  was  ready  to  meet  him  when  he 
would ;  and  he  parted  from  me,  saying,  '  It  is  a  pity,  sir,  I 
cannot  fight  you  now ;  when  next  we  meet,  it  will  be  beneath 
my  dignity  to  measure  swords  with  you.' " 

"  I  suppose  he  expected  to  come  back  a  prince  at  least — 
Heaven  knows  ;  I  owe  him  no  ill-will,  nor  I  hope  does  any  man. 
He  has  paid  all  debts  now  in  full,  and  got  his  receipt  for  them." 

"  How  did  he  die,  then,  after  all  V 

"  On  his  voyage  he  touched  in  Portugal.  King  Sebastian 
was  just  sailing  for  Africa  with  his  new  ally,  Mohammed  the 
Prince  of  Fez,  to  help  King  Abdallah,  and  conquer  what  he 
could.  He  persuaded  Stukely  to  go  with  him.  There  were 
those  who  thought  that  he  as  well  as  the  Spaniards,  had  no 
stomach  for  seeing  the  Pope's  son  King  of  Ireland.  Others 
used  to  say  that  he  thought  an  island  too  small  for  his  ambition, 
and  must  needs  conquer  a  continent — I  know  not  why  it  was, 
but  he  went.  They  had  heavy  weather  in  the  passage ;  and 
when  they  landed,  many  of  their  soldiers  were  sea-sick.  Stukely, 
reasonably  enough,  counselled  that  they  should  wait  two  or 
three  days  and  recruit ;  but  Don  Sebastian  was  so  mad  for  the 
assault  that  he  must  needs  have  his  veni,  vidi,  vici ;  and  so 
ended  with  a  veni,  vidi,  perii ;  for  he,  Abdallah,  and  his  son 
Mohammed,  all  perished  in  the  first  battle  at  Alcasar  ;  and 
Stukely,  surrounded  and  overpowered,  fought  till  he  could  fight 
no  more,  and  then  died  like  a  hero  with  all  his  wounds  in 
front ;  and  may  God  have  mercy  on  his  soul !" 

"  Ah  !"  said  Amyas,  "  we  heard  of  that  battle  off  Lima,  but 
nothing  about  poor  Stukely." 

"  That  last  was  a  Popish  prayer,  Master  Frank,"  said  old 
Mr.  Gary. 

"  Most  worshipful  sir,  you  surely  would  not  wish  God  not 
to  have  mercy  on  his  soul?" 

"  No — eh  1  Of  course  not :  but  that's  all  settled  by  now, 
for  he  is  dead,  poor  fellow." 

"  Certainly,  my  dear  sir.  And  you  cannot  help  being  a 
little  fond  of  him  still." 

"  Eh  ?  why,  I  should  be  a  brute  if  I  were  not.  He  and  I 
were  schoolfellows,  though  he  was  somewhat  the  younger ;  and 
many  a  good  thrashing  have  I  given  him,  and  one  cannot  help 
having  a  tenderness  for  a  man  after  that.  Beside,  we  used  to 
hunt  together  in  Exmoor,  and  have  royal  nights  afterward  into 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  97 

Ilfracombe,  when  we  were  a  couple  of  mad  young  blades.  Fond 
of  him  ?  Why,  I  would  have  sooner  given  my  forefinger  than 
that  he  should  have  gone  to  the  dogs  thus." 

"Then,  my  dear  sir,  if  you  feel  for  him  still,  in  spite  of  all 
his  faults,  how  do  you  know  that  God  may  not  feel  for  him  still, 
in  spite  of  all  his  faults  ?  For  my  part,"  quoth  Frank  in  his 
fanciful  way,  "without  believing  in  that  Popish  Purgatory,  I 
cannot  help  holding  with  Plato,  that  such  heroical  souls,  who 
have  wanted  but  little  of  true  greatness,  are  hereafter  by  some 
strait  discipline  brought  to  a  better  mind ;  perhaps,  as  many 
ancients  have  held  with  the  Indian  Gymnosophists,  by  trans- 
migration into  the  bodies  of  those  animals  whom  they  have  re- 
sembled in  their  passions  ;  and  indeed,  if  Sir  Thomas  Stukely's 
soul  should  now  animate  the  body  of  a  lion,  all  I  can  say  is  that 
he  would  be  a  very  valiant  and  royal  lion ;  and  also  doubtless 
become  in  due  time  heartily  ashamed  and  penitent  for  having 
been  nothing  better  than  a  lion." 

"What  now,  Master  Frank1?  I  don't  trouble  my  head  with 
such  matters— I  say  Stukely  was  a  right  good-hearted  fellow  at 
bottom  ;  and  if  you  plague  my  head  with  any  of  your  dialectics, 
and  propositions,  and  college  quips  and  quiddities,  you  shan't 
have  any  more  sack,  sir.  But  here  come  the  knaves,  and  I  hear 
the  cook  knock  to  dinner." 

After  a  madrigal  or  two,  and  an  Italian  song  of  Master 
Frank's,  all  which  went  sweetly  enough,  the  ladies  rose,  and 
went.  Whereon  Will  Gary,  drawing  his  chair  close  to  Frank's, 
put  quietly  into  his  hand  a  dirty  letter. 

"  This  was  the  letter  left  for  me,"  whispered  he,  "  by  a 
country  fellow  this  morning.  Look  at  it  and  tell  me  what  I 
am  to  do." 

Whereon  Frank  opened,  and  read— 

' '  Mister  Cary,  be  you  wary 

By  deer  park  end  to-night. 

Yf  Irish  ffoxe  com  out  of  rocks 

Grip  and  hold  hym  tight." 

"  I  would  have  showed  it  my  father,"  said  Will,  "  but — 
'•  I  verily  believe  it  to  be  a  blind.     See  now,  this  is  the 
handwriting  of  a  man  who  has  been  trying  to  write  vilely,  and 
yet  cannot.     Look  at  that  B,  and  that  G ;  their  format  forma- 
tivce  never  were  begotten  in  a  hedge-school.    And  what  is  more, 
this  is  no  Devon  man's  handiwork.     We  say  '  to '  and  not  '  by,' 
Will,  eh  ?  in  the  West  country?" 
"Of  course." 

H 


98  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

"  And  '  man,'  instead  of  '  him '  ?" 

" True,  0  Daniel !     But  am  I  to  do  nothing  therefore?" 

"  On  that  matter  I  am  no  judge.  Let  us  ask  much-endur- 
ing Ulysses  here ;  perhaps  he  has  not  sailed  round  the  world 
without  bringing  home  a  device  or  two." 

Whereon  Amyas  was  called  to  counsel,  as  soon  as  Mr.  Gary 
could  be  stopped  in  a  long  cross-examination  of  him  as  to  Mr. 
Dough ty's  famous  trial  and  execution. 

Amyas  pondered  awhile,  thrusting  his  hands  into  his  long 
curls  ;  and  then — 

"  Will,  my  lad,  have  you  been  watching  at  the  Deer  Park 
End  of  late  ?" 

"Never." 

"Where,  then?" 

"At  the  town-beach." 

"Where  else?" 

"  At  the  town-head." 

"  Where  else  ?" 

11  Why,  the  fellow  is  turned  lawyer  !     Above  Freshwater." 

"Where  is  Freshwater1?" 

"  Why,  where  the  water-fall  comes  over  the  cliff,  half-a-mile 
from  the  town.  There  is  a  path  there  up  into  the  forest." 

"  I  know.  I'll  watch  there  to-night.  Do  you  keep  all  your 
old  haunts  safe,  of  course,  and  send  a  couple  of  stout  knaves  to 
the  mill,  to  watch  the  beach  at  the  Deer  Park  End,  on  the 
chance ;  for  your  poet  may  be  a  true  man,  after  all.  But  my 
heart's  faith  is,  that  this  comes  just  to  draw  you  off  from  some 
old  beat  of  yours,  upon  a  wild  goose  chase.  If  they  shoot  the 
miller  by  mistake,  I  suppose  it  don't  much  matter  ?" 

"  Marry,  no. 

' ' '  When  a  miller's  knock'd  on  the  head, 

The  less  of  flour  makes  the  more  of  bread. '  " 

"  Or,  again,"  chimed  in  old  Mr.  Gary,  "  as  they  say  in  the 
North— 

' '  '  Find  a  miller  that  will  not  steal, 
Or  a  webster  that  is  leal, 
Or  a  priest  that  is  not  greedy, 
And  lay  them  three  a  dead  corpse  by  ; 
And  by  the  virtue  of  them  three, 
The  said  dead  corpse  shall  quicken'd  be.'  " 

"  But  why  are  you  so  ready  to  watch  Freshwater  to-night, 
Master  Amyas  ?" 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  99 

"Because,  sir,  those  who  come,  if  they  come,  will  never  laud 
at  Mouthmill ;  if  they  are  strangers,  they  dare  not ;  and  if  they 
are  bay's-men,  they  are  too  wise,  as  long  as  the  westerly  swell 
sets  in.  As  for  landing  at  the  town,  that  would  be  too  great  a 
risk ;  but  Freshwater  is  as  lonely  as  the  Bermudas ;  and  they 
can  beach  a  boat  up  under  the  cliff  at  all  tides,  and  in  all 
weathers,  except  north  and  nor'-west.  I  have  done  it  many  a 
time,  when  I  was  a  boy." 

"  And  give  us  the  fruit  of  your  experience  now  in  your  old 
age,  eh  ?  Well,  you  have  a  grey  head  on  green  shoulders,  my 
lad ;  and  I  verily  believe  you  are  right.  Who  will  you  take 
with  you  to  watch?" 

"  Sir,"  said  Frank,  "  I  will  go  with  my  brother  :  and  that 
will  be  enough." 

"  Enough  1  He  is  big  enough,  and  you  brave  enough,  for 
ten ;  but  still,  the  more  the  merrier." 

"  But  the  fewer,  the  better  fare.  If  I  might  ask  a  first  and 
last  favour,  worshipful  sir,"  said  Frank  very  earnestly,  "you 
would  grant  me  two  things  :  that  you  would  let  none  go  to 
Freshwater  but  me  and  my  brother ;  and  that  whatsoever  we 
shall  bring  you  back  shall  be  kept  as  secret  as  the  commonweal 
and  your  loyalty  shall  permit.  I  trust  that  we  are  not  so  un- 
known to  you,  or  to  others,  that  you  can  doubt  for  a  moment 
but  that  whatsoever  we  may  do  will  satisfy  at  once  your  honour 
and  our  own." 

"  My  dear  young  gentleman,  there  is  no  need  of  so  many 
courtier's  words.  I  am  your  father's  friend,  and  yours.  And 
God  forbid  that  a  Gary — for  I  guess  your  drift — should  ever 
wish  to  make  a  head  or  a  heart  ache ;  that  is,  more  than — 

"  Those  of  whom  it  is  written.  '  Though  thou  bray  a  fool  in 
a  mortar,  yet  will  not  his  folly  depart  from  him,'  "  interposed 
Frank,  in  so  sad  a  tone  that  no  one  at  the  table  replied ;  and 
lew  more  words  were  exchanged,  till  the  two  brothers  were  safe 
outside  the  house  ;  and  then — 

"  Amyas,"  said  Frank,  "  that  was  a  Devon  man's  handi- 
work, nevertheless  ;  it  was  Eustace's  handwriting." 
"Impossible !" 

"  No,  lad.  I  have  been  secretary  to  a  prince,  and  learnt  to 
interpret  cipher,  and  to  watch  every  pen-stroke ;  and,  young  as 
I  am,  I  think  that  I  am  not  easily  deceived.  Would  God  I 
were  !  Come  on,  lad  ;  and  strike  no  man  hastily,  lest  thou  cut 
off  thine  own  flesh." 

So  forth  the  two  went,  along  the  park  to  the  eastward,  and 


100  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  V. 

past  the  head  of  the  little  wood-embosomed  fishing-town,  a  steep 
stair  of  houses  clinging  to  the  cliff  far  below  them,  the  bright 
slate  roofs  and  white  walls  glittering  in  the  moonlight ;  and 
on  some  half-mile  farther,  along  the  steep  hill-side,  fenced  with 
oak  wood  down  to  the  water's  edge,  by  a  narrow  forest  path,  to 
a  point  where  two  glens  meet  and  pour  their  streamlets  over  a 
cascade  some  hundred  feet  in  height  into  the  sea  below.  By 
the  side  of  this  waterfall  a  narrow  path  climbs  upward  from  the 
beach  ;  and  here  it  was  that  the  two  brothers  expected  to  meet 
the  messenger. 

Frank  insisted  on  taking  his  station  below  Amyas.  He 
said  that  he  was  certain  that  Eustace  himself  would  make  his 
appearance,  and  that  he  was  more  fit  than  Amyas  to  bring  him 
to  reason  by  parley ;  that  if  Amyas  would  keep  watch  some 
twenty  yards  above,  the  escape  of  the  messenger  would  be  im- 
possible. Moreover,  he  was  the  elder  brother,  and  the  post  of 
honour  was  his  right.  So  Amyas  obeyed  him,  after  making 
him  promise  that  if  more  than  one  man  came  up  the  path,  he 
would  let  them  pass  him  before  he  challenged,  so  that  both 
might  bring  them  to  bay  at  the  same  time. 

So  Amyas  took  his  station  under  a  high  marl  bank,  and, 
bedded  in  luxuriant  crown-ferns,  kept  his  eye  steadily  on  Frank, 
who  sat  down  on  a  little  knoll  of  rock  (where  is  now  a  garden 
on  the  cliff -edge)  which  parts  the  path  and  the  dark  chasm 
down  which  the  stream  rushes  to  its  final  leap  over  the 
cliff. 

There  Amyas  sat  a  full  half -hour,  and  glanced  at  whiles 
from  Frank  to  look  upon  the  scene  around.  Outside  the  south- 
west wind  blew  fresh  and  strong,  and  the  moonlight  danced 
upon  a  thousand  crests  of  foam ;  but  within  the  black  jagged 
point  which  sheltered  the  town,  the  sea  did  but  heave,  in  long 
oily  swells  of  rolling  silver,  onward  into  the  black  shadow  of  the 
hills,  within  which  the  town  and  pier  lay  invisible,  save  where 
a  twinkling  light  gave  token  of  some  lonely  fisher's  wife,  watch- 
ing the  weary  night  through  for  the  boat  which  would  return 
with  dawn.  Here  and  there  upon  the  sea,  a  black  speck  marked 
a  herring-boat,  drifting  with  its  line  of  nets ;  and  right  off  the 
mouth  of  the  glen,  Amyas  saw,  with  a  beating  heart,  a  large 
two-masted  vessel  lying-to — that  must  be  the  "Portugal!" 
Eagerly  he  looked  up  the  glen,  and  listened ;  but  he  heard 
nothing  but  the  sweeping  of  the  wind  across  the  downs  five 
hundred  feet  above,  and  the  sough  of  the  waterfall  upon  the 
rocks  below ;  he  saw  nothing  but  the  vast  black  sheets  of  oak- 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  101 

wood  sloping  up  to  the  narrow  blue  sky  above,  and  the  broad 
bright  hunter's  moon,  and  the  woodcocks,  which,  chuckling  to 
each  other,  hawked  to  and  fro,  like  swallows,  between  the  tree- 
tops  and  the  sky. 

At  last  he  heard  a  rustle  of  the  fallen  leaves ;  he  shrank 
closer  and  closer  into  the  darkness  of  the  bank.  Then  swift 
light  steps — not  down  the  path,  from  above,  but  upward,  from 
below ;  his  heart  beat  quick  and  loud.  And  in  another  half- 
minute  a  man  came  in  sight,  within  three  yards  of  Frank's 
hiding-place. 

Frank  sprang  out  instantly.  Amyas  saw  his  bright  blade 
glance  in  the  clear  October  moonlight. 

"  Stand  in  the  queen's  name  !" 

The  man  drew  a  pistol  from  under  his  cloak,  and  fired  full 
in  his  face.  Had  -it  happened  in  these  days  of  detonators, 
Frank's  chance  had  been  small ;  but  to  get  a  ponderous  wheel- 
lock  under  weigh  was  a  longer  business,  and  before  the  fizzing 
of  the  flint  had  ceased,  Frank  had  struck  up  the  pistol  with  his 
rapier,  and  it  exploded  harmlessly  over  his  head.  The  man  in- 
stantly dashed  the  weapon  in  his  face  and  closed. 

The  blow,  luckily,  did  not  take  effect  on  that  delicate  fore- 
head, but  struck  him  on  the  shoulder :  nevertheless,  Frank, 
who  with  all  his  grace  and  agility  was  as  fragile  as  a  lily,  and 
a  very  bubble  of  the  earth,  staggered,  and  lost  his  guard,  and 
before  he  could  recover  himself,  Amyas  saw  a  dagger  gleam, 
and  one,  two,  three  blows  fiercely  repeated. 

Mad  with  fury,  he  was  with  them  in  an  instant.  They 
were  scuffling  together  so  closely  in  the  shade  that  he  was 
afraid  to  use  his  sword  point ;  but  with  the  hilt  he  dealt  a 
single  blow  full  on  the  ruffian's  cheek.  It  was  enough  ;  with 
a  hideous  shriek,  the  fellow  rolled  over  at  his  feet,  and  Amyas 
set  his  foot  on  him,  in  act  to  run  him  through. 

"Stop!  stay!"  almost  screamed  Frank;  "it  is  Eustace! 
our  cousin  Eustace  !"  and  he  leant  against  a  tree. 

Amyas  sprang  towards  him  :  but  Frank  waved  him  off. 

"  It  is  nothing — a  scratch.  He  has  papers  :  I  am  sure  of 
it.  Take  them  ;  and  for  God's  sake  let  him  go  !" 

"Villain  !  give  me  your  papers  !"  cried  Amyas,  setting  his 
foot  once  more  on  the  writhing  Eustace,  whose  jaw  was  broken 
across. 

"  You  struck  me  foully  from  behind,"  moaned  he,  his  vanity 
and  envy  even  then  coming  out,  in  that  faint  and  foolish  attempt 
to  prove  Amyas  not  so  very  much  better  a  man. 


102  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

"  Hound,  do  you  think  that  I  dare  not  strike  you  in  front  1 
Give  me  your  papers,  letters,  whatever  Popish  devilry  you 
carry  ;  or  as  I  live,  I  will  cut  off  your  head,  and  take  them 
myself,  even  if  it  cost  me  the  shame  of  stripping  your  corpse. 
Give  them  up  !  Traitor,  murderer  !  give  them,  I  say  !"  And 
setting  his  foot  on  him  afresh,  he  raised  his  sword. 

Eustace  was  usually  no  craven :  but  he  was  cowed.  Between 
agony  and  shame,  he  had  no  heart  to  resist.  Martyrdom,  which 
looked  so  splendid  when  consummated  selon  les  regies  on  Tower 
Hill  or  Tyburn,  before  pitying,  or  (still  better)  scoffing  multi- 
tudes, looked  a  confused,  dirty,  ugly  business  there  in  the  dark 
forest ;  and  as  he  lay,  a  stream  of  moonlight  bathed  his  mighty 
cousin's  broad  clear  forehead,  and  his  long  golden  locks,  and 
his  white  terrible  blade,  till  he  seemed,  to  Eustace's  supersti- 
tious eye,  like  one  of  those  fair  young  St.  Michaels  trampling 
on  the  fiend,  which  he  had  seen  abroad  in  old  German  pictures. 
He  shuddered  ;  pulled  a  packet  from  his  bosom,  and  threw  it 
from  him,  murmuring,  "  I  have  not  given  it." 

"  Swear  to  me  that  these  are  all  the  papers  which  you 
have  in  cipher  or  out  of  cipher.  Swear  on  your  soul,  or  you 
die  !" 

Eustace  swore. 

"Tell  me,  who  are  your  accomplices?" 

"Never!"  said  Eustace.  "Cruel!  have  you  not  degraded 
me  enough  already  ?"  and  the  wretched  young  man  burst  into 
tears,  and  hid  his  bleeding  face  in  his  hands. 

One  hint  of  honour  made  Arnyas  as  gentle  as  a  lamb.  He 
lifted  Eustace  up,  and  bade  him  run  for  his  life. 

11 1  am  to  owe  my  life,  then,  to  you1!" 

"  Not  in  the  least ;  only  to  your  being  a  Leigh.  Go,  or  it 
will  be  worse  for  you ! "  And  Eustace  went ;  while  Amyas, 
catching  up  the  precious  packet,  hurried  to  Frank.  He  had 
fainted  already,  and  his  brother  had  to  carry  him  as  fa,r  as  the 
park  before  he  could  find  any  of  the  other  watchers.  The 
blind,  as  far  as  they  were  concerned,  was  complete.  They  had 
heard  and  seen  nothing.  Whosoever  had  brought  the  packet 
had  landed  they  knew  not  where  ;  and  so  all  returned  to  the 
Court,  carrying  Frank,  who  recovered  gradually,  having  rather 
bruises  than  wounds ;  for  his  foe  had  struck  wildly,  and  with 
a  trembling  hand. 

Half -an -hour  after,  Amyas,  Mr.  Gary,  and  his  son  Will 
were  in  deep  consultation  over  the  following  epistle,  the  only 
paper  in  the  packet  which  was  not  in  cipher : — 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  103 

"  4«    DEAK  BROTHER  N.     S.  in  Ch^  et  Ecclesia. 

"  This  is  to  inform  you  and  the  friends  of  the  cause,  that 
S.  Josephus  has  landed  in  Smerwick,  with  eight  hundred 
valiant  Crusaders,  burning  with  holy  zeal  to  imitate  last  year's 
martyrs  of  Carrigfolium,  and  to  expiate  their  offences  (which  I 
f'rar  may  have  been  many)  by  the  propagation  of  our  most  holy 
faith.  I  have  purified  the  fort  (which  they  are  strenuously 
rebuilding)  with  prayer  and  holy  water,  from  the  stain  of 
heretical  footsteps,  and  consecrated  it  afresh  to  the  service  of 
Heaven,  as  the  first-fruits  of  the  isle  of  saints  ;  and  having  dis- 
played the  consecrated  banner  to  the  adoration  of  the  faithful, 
have  returned  to  Earl  Desmond,  that  I  may  establish  his  faith, 
weak  as  yet,  by  reason  of  the  allurements  of  this  world : 
though  since,  by  the  valour  of  his  brother  James,  he  that 
hindered  was  taken  out  of  the  way  (I  mean  Davils  the  heretic, 
sacrifice  well-pleasing  in  the  eyes  of  Heaven  !),  the  young  man 
has  lent  a  more  obedient  ear  to  my  counsels.  If  you  can  do 
anything,  do  it  quickly,  for  a  great  door  and  effectual  is  opened, 
and  there  are  many  adversaries.  But  be  swift,  for  so  do  the 
poor  lambs  of  the  Church  tremble  at  the  fury  of  the  heretics, 
that  a  hundred  will  flee  before  one  Englishman.  And  indeed, 
were  it  not  for  that  divine  charity  toward  the  Church  (which 
covers  the  multitude  of  sins)  with  which  they  are  resplendent, 
neither  they  nor  their  country  would  be,  by  the  carnal  judg- 
ment, counted  worthy  of  so  great  labour  in  their  behalf.  For 
they  themselves  are  given  much  to  lying,  theft,  and  drunkenness, 
vain  babbling,  and  profane  dancing  and  singing ;  and  are  still, 
as  S.  Gildas  reports  of  them,  '  more  careful  to  shroud  their 
villainous  faces  in  bushy  hair,  than  decently  to  cover  their 
bodies ;  while  their  land  (by  reason  of  the  tyranny  of  their 
chieftains,  and  the  continual  wars  and  plunderings  among  their 
tribes,  which  leave  them  weak  and  divided,  an  easy  prey  to  the 
myrmidons  of  the  excommunicate  and  usurping  Englishwoman) 
lies  utterly  waste  with  fire,  and  defaced  with  corpses  of  the 
starved  and  slain.  But  what  are  these  things,  while  the  holy 
virtue  of  Catholic  obedience  still  flourishes  in  their  hearts  ? 
The  Church  cares  not  for  the  conservation  of  body  and  goods, 
but  of  immortal  souls. 

"  If  any  devout  lady  shall  so  will,  you  may  obtain  from  her 
liberality  a  shirt  for  this  worthless  tabernacle,  and  also  a  pair 
of  hose  ;  for  I  am  unsavoury  to  myself  and  to  others,  and  of 
such  luxuries  none  here  has  superfluity ;  for  all  live  in  holy 
poverty,  except  the  fleas,  who  have  that  consolation  in  this 


104  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

world  for  which  this  unhappy  nation,  and  those  who  labour 
among  them,  must  wait  till  the  world  to  come.1 

"  Your  loving  brother, 

"N.  S." 

"  Sir  Richard  must  know  of  this  before  daybreak,"  cried 
old  Gary.  "  Eight  hundred  men  landed  !  We  must  call  out 
the  Posse  Comitatus,  and  sail  with  them  bodily.  I  will  go 
myself,  old  as  I  am.  Spaniards  in  Ireland  1  not  a  dog  of  them 
must  go  home  again." 

"Not  a  dog  of  them,"  answered  Will;  "but  where  is  Mr. 
Winter  and  his  squadron  1" 

"  Safe  in  Milford  Haven  ;  a  messenger  must  be  sent  to  him 
too." 

"  I'll  go,"  said  Amyas  :  "  but  Mr.  Gary  is  right.  Sir 
Richard  must  know  all  first." 

"And  we  must  have  those  Jesuits." 

"What?  Mr.  Evans  and  Mr.  Morgans?  God  help  us — 
they  are  at  my  uncle's  !  Consider  the  honour  of  our  family  !" 

"  Judge  for  yourself,  my  dear  boy,"  said  old  Mr.  Gary 
gently :  "  would  it  not  be  rank  treason  to  let  these  foxes 
escape,  while  we  have  this  damning  proof  against  them  ?" 

"I  will  go  myself,  then." 

"  Why  not  1  You  may  keep  all  straight,  and  Will  shall  go 
with  you.  Call  a  groom,  Will,  and  get  your  horse  saddled,  and 
my  Yorkshire  grey;  he  will  make  better  play  with  this  big 
fellow  on  his  back,  than  the  little  pony  astride  of  which  Mr. 
Leigh  came  walking  in  (as  I  hear)  this  morning.  As  for  Frank, 
the  ladies  will  see  to  him  well  enough,  and  glad  enough,  too,  to 
have  so  fine  a  bird  in  their  cage  for  a  week  or  two." 

"  And  my  mother  V ' 

"We'll  send  to  her  to-morrow  by  daybreak.  Come,  a 
stirrup  cup  to  start  with,  hot  and  hot.  Now,  boots,  cloaks, 
swords,  a  deep  pull  and  a  warm  one,  and  away  ! " 

And  the  jolly  old  man  bustled  them  out  of  the  house  and 
into  their  saddles,  under  the  broad  bright  winter's  moon. 

"  You  must  make  your  pace,  lads,  or  the  moon  will  be  down 
before  you  are  over  the  moors."  And  so  away  they  went. 

Neither  of  them  spoke  for  many  a  mile.  Amyas,  because 
his  mind  was  fixed  firmly  on  the  one  object  of  saving  the  honour 
of  his  house;  and  Will,  because  he  was  hesitating  between 

1  See  note  at  end  of  chapter. 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  105 

Ireland  and  the  wars,  and  Rose  Salterne  and  love-making.  At 
last  he  spoke  suddenly. 

"  I'll  go,  Amyas." 

"  Whither  ?" 

"To  Ireland  with  you,  old  man.  I  have  dragged  my 
anchor  at  last." 

"  What  anchor,  my  lad  of  parables  V 

"  See,  here  am  I,  a  tall  and  gallant  ship." 

"  Modest  even  if  not  true." 

"  Inclination,  like  an  anchor,  holds  me  tight." 

"  To  the  mud." 

"  Nay,  to  a  bed  of  roses — not  without  their  thorns." 

"  Hillo  !  I  have  seen  oysters  grow  on  fruit-trees  before  now, 
but  never  an  anchor  in  a  rose-garden." 

"  Silence,  or  my  allegory  will  go  to  noggin-staves." 

"  Against  the  rocks  of  my  flinty  discernment." 

"  Pooh — well.  Up  comes  duty  like  a  jolly  breeze,  blowing 
dead  from  the  north-east,  and  as  bitter  and  cross  as  a  north- 
easter too,  and  tugs  me  away  toward  Ireland.  I  hold  on  by 
the  rose -bed — any  ground  in  a  storm — till  every  strand  is 
parted,  and  off  I  go,  westward  ho  !  to  get  my  throat  cut  in  a 
bog-hole  with  Amyas  Leigh." 

"  Earnest,  Will  V ' 

"  As  I  am  a  sinful  man." 

"Well  done,  young  hawk  of  the  White  Cliff!" 

"  I  had  rather  have  called  it  Gallantry  Bower  still,  though," 
said  Will,  punning  on  the  double  name  of  the  noble  precipice 
which  forms  the  highest  point  of  the  deer  park, 

"  Well,  as  long  as  you  are  on  land,  you  know  it  is  Gallantry 
Bower  still :  but  we  always  call  it  White  Cliff  when  you  see  it 
from  the  sea-board,  as  you  and  I  shall  do,  I  hope,  to-morrow 
evening." 

"  What,  so  soon  ?" 

"  Dare  we  lose  a  day  ?" 

"  I  suppose  not :  heigh-ho  !" 

And  they  rode  on  again  in  silence,  Amyas  in  the  meanwhile 
being  not  a  little  content  (in  spite  of  his  late  self-renunciation) 
to  find  that  one  of  his  rivals  at  least  was  going  to  raise  the 
siege  of  the  Rose  garcl.en  for  a  few  months,  and  withdraw  his 
forces  to  the  coast  of  Kerry. 

As  they  went  over  Bursdon,  Amyas  pulled  up  suddenly. 

"  Did  you  not  hear  a  horse's  step  on  our  left  1" 

"  On  our  left — coming  up  from  Welsford  moor  t    Impossible 


106  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

at  this  time  of  night.  It  must  have  been  a  stag,  or  a  sownder 
of  wild  swine  :  or  may  be  only  an  old  cow." 

"  It  was  the  ring  of  iron,  friend.     Let  us  stand  and  watch." 

Bursdon  and  Welsford  were  then,  as  now,  a  rolling  range 
of  dreary  moors,  unbroken  by  tor  or  tree,  or  anything  save  few 
and  far  between  a  world-old  furze -bank  which  marked  the 
common  rights  of  some  distant  cattle  farm,  and  crossed  then, 
not  as  now,  by  a  decent  road,  but  by  a  rough  confused  track- 
way, the  remnant  of  an  old  Roman  road  from  Clovelly  dikes 
to  Launceston.  To  the  left  it  trended  down  towards  a  lower 
range  of  moors,  which  form  the  watershed  of  the  heads  of 
Torridge ;  and  thither  the  two  young  men  peered  down  over 
the  expanse  of  bog  and  furze,  which  glittered  for  miles  beneath 
the  moon,  one  sheet  of  frosted  silver,  in  the  heavy  autumn  dew. 

"If  any  of  Eustace's  party  are  trying  to  get  home  from 
Freshwater,  they  might  save  a  couple  of  miles  by  coming  across 
Welsford,  instead  of  going  by  the  main  track,  as  we  have  done." 
So  said  Amyas,  who  though  (luckily  for  him)  no  "  genius,"  was 
cunning  as  a  fox  in  all  matters  of  tactic  and  practic,  and  would 
have  in  these  days  proved  his  right  to  be  considered  an  intel- 
lectual person  by  being  a  thorough  man  of  business. 

"  If  any  of  his  party  are  mad,  they'll  try  it,  and  be  stogged 
till  the  day  of  judgment.  There  are  bogs  in  the  bottom  twenty 
feet  deep.  Plague  on  the  fellow,  whoever  he  is,  he  has  dodged 
us  !  Look  there  !" 

It  was  too  true.  The  unknown  horseman  had  evidently 
dismounted  below,  and  led  his  horse  up  on  the  other  side  of  a 
long  furze-dike  ;  till  coming  to  the  point  where  it  turned  away 
again  from  his  intended  course,  he  appeared  against  the  sky,  in 
the  act  of  leading  his  nag  over  a  gap. 

"  Ride  like  the  wind  !"  and  both  youths  galloped  across 
furze  and  heather  at  him ;  but  ere  they  were  within  a  hundred 
yards  of  him,  he  had  leapt  again  on  his  horse,  and  was  away 
far  ahead. 

"  There  is  the  dor  to  us,  with  a  vengeance,"  cried  Gary, 
putting  in  the  spurs. 

"  It  is  but  a  lad ;  we  shall  never  catch  him." 

"  I'll  try,  though ;  and  do  you  lumber  after  as  you  can, 
old  heavy  sides  ;"  and  Gary  pushed  forward. 

Amyas  lost  sight  of  him  for  ten  minutes,  and  then  came  up 
with  him  dismounted,  and  feeling  disconsolately  at  his  horse's 
knees. 

"  Look  for  my  head.     It  lies  somewhere  about  among  the 


CHAP,  v.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  107 

furze  there ;  and  oh  !  I  am  as  full  of  needles  as  ever  was  a  pin- 
cushion." 

"  Are  his  knees  broken  ?" 

"  I  daren't  look.  No,  I  believe  not.  Come  along,  and 
make  the  best  of  a  bad  matter.  The  fellow  is  a  mile  ahead, 
and  to  the  right,  too." 

"  He  is  going  for  Moorwinstow,  then ;  but  where  is  my 
cousin  ?" 

"  Behind  us,  I  dare  say.     We  shall  nab  him  at  least." 

"  Gary,  promise  me  that  if  we  do,  you  will  keep  out  of  sight, 
and  let  me  manage  him." 

"  My  boy,  I  only  want  Evan  Morgans  and  Morgan  Evans. 
He  is  but  the  cat's  paw,  and  we  are  after  the  cats  themselves." 

And  so  they  went  on  another  dreary  six  miles,  till  the  land 
trended  downwards,  showing  dark  glens  and  masses  of  wood- 
land far  below. 

"  Now,  then,  straight  to  Chapel,  and  stop  the  foxes'  earth  1 
Or  through  the  King's  Park  to  Stow,  and  get  out  Sir  Richard's 
hounds,  hue  and  cry,  and  queen's  warrant  in  proper  form  1" 

"  Let  us  see  Sir  Richard  first ;  and  whatsoever  he  decides 
about  my  uncle,  I  will  endure  as  a  loyal  subject  must." 

So  they  rode  through  the  King's  Park,  while  Sir  Richard's 
colts  came  whinnying  and  staring  round  the  intruders,  and 
down  through  a  rich  woodland  lane  five  hundred  feet  into  the 
valley,  till  they  could  hear  the  brawling  of  the  little  trout- 
stream,  and  beyond,  the  everlasting  thunder  of  the  ocean  surf. 

Down  through  warm  woods,  all  fragrant  with  dying 
autumn  flowers,  leaving  far  above  the  keen  Atlantic  breeze, 
into  one  of  those  delicious  Western  Combes,  and  so  past  the 
mill,  and  the  little  knot  of  flower-clad  cottages.  In  the  window 
of  one  of  them  a  light  was  still  burning.  The  two  young  men 
knew  well  whose  window  that  was  ;  and  both  hearts  beat  fast ; 
for  Rose  Salterne  slept,  or  rather  seemed  to  wake,  in  that 
chamber. 

"  Folks  are  late  in  Combe  to-night,"  said  Ainyas,  as  care- 
lessly as  he  could. 

Gary  looked  earnestly  at  the  window,  and  then  sharply 
enough  at  Amyas ;  but  Amyas  was  busy  settling  his  stirrup ; 
and  Gary  rode  on,  unconscious  that  every  fibre  in  his  com- 
panion's huge  frame  was  trembling  like  his  own. 

"  Muggy  and  close  down  here,"  said  Amyas,  who,  in  reality, 
was  quite  faint  with  his  own  inward  struggles. 

"We  shall  be  at  Stow  gate  in  five  minutes,"  said  Gary, 


108  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  V. 

looking  back  and  down  longingly  as  his  horse  climbed  the 
opposite  hill ;  but  a  turn  of  the  zigzag  road  hid  the  cottage, 
and  the  next  thought  was,  how  to  effect  an  entrance  into  Stow 
at  three  in  the  morning  without  being  eaten  by  the  ban-dogs, 
who  were  already  howling  and  growling  at  the  sound  of  the 
horse-hoofs. 

However,  they  got  safely  in,  after  much  knocking  and  call- 
ing, through  the  postern-gate  in  the  high  west  wall,  into  a 
mansion,  the  description  whereof  I  must  defer  to  the  next 
chapter,  seeing  that  the  moon  has  already  sunk  into  the  Atlantic, 
and  there  is  darkness  over  land  and  sea. 

Sir  Richard,  in  his  long  gown,  was  soon  downstairs  in  the 
hall ;  the  letter  read,  and  the  story  told ;  but  ere  it  was  half 
finished — 

"  Anthony,  call  up  a  groom,  and  let  him  bring  me  a  horse 
round.  Gentlemen,  if  you  will  excuse  me  five  minutes,  I  shall 
be  at  your  service." 

"  You  will  not  go  alone,  Richard  ?"  asked  Lady  Grenvile, 
putting  her  beautiful  face  in  its  nightcoif  out  of  an  adjoining 
door. 

"  Surely,  sweet  chuck,  we  three  are  enough  to  take  two  poor 
polecats  of  Jesuits.  Go  in,  and  help  me  to  boot  and  gird." 

In  half  an  hour  they  were  down  and  up  across  the  valley 
again,  under  the  few  low  ashes  dipt  flat  by  the  sea-breeze  which 
stood  round  the  lonely  gate  of  Chapel. 

"  Mr.  Gary,  there  is  a  back  path  across  the  downs  to  Mars- 
land  ;  go  and  guard  that."  Gary  rode  off;  and  Sir  Richard, 
as  he  knocked  loudly  at  the  gate — 

"  Mr.  Leigh,  you  see  that  I  have  consulted  your  honour, 
and  that  of  your  poor  uncle,  by  adventuring  thus  alone.  What 
will  you  have  me  do  now,  which  may  not  be  unfit  for  me  and 
you?" 

"  Oh,  sir  !"  said  Amyas,  with  tears  in  his  honest  eyes, 
"  you  have  shown  yourself  once  more  what  you  always  have 
been — my  dear  and  beloved  master  on  earth,  not  second  even 
to  my  admiral  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

"  Or  the  queen,  I  hope,"  said  Grenvile,  smiling,  "  but 
pocas  palabras.  What  will  you  do  V 

"  My  wretched  cousin,  sir,  may  not  have  returned — and  if 
I  might  watch  for  him  on  the  main  road — unless  you  want  me 
with  you." 

"  Richard  Grenvile  can  walk  alone,  lad.  But  what  will  you 
do  with  your  cousin?" 


CHAP.  V.]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  109 

"  Send  him  out  of  the  country,  never  to  return  ;  or  if  he 
refuses,  run  him  through  on  the  spot." 

"Go,  lad."  And  as  he  spoke,  a  sleepy  voice  asked  inside 
the  gate,  "  Who  was  there  V 

"Sir  Richard  Grenvile.     Open,  in  the  queen's  name?" 

"  Sir  Richard  1  He  is  in  bed,  and  be  hanged  to  you.  No 
honest  folk  come  at  this  hour  of  night." 

"  Amyas  ! "  shouted  Sir  Richard.     Amyas  rode  back. 

"  Burst  that  gate  for  me,  while  I  hold  your  horse." 

Amyas  leaped  down,  took  up  a  rock  from  the  roadside,  such 
as  Homer's  heroes  used  to  send  at  each  other's  heads,  and  in  an 
instant  the  door  was  flat  on  the  ground,  and  the  serving-man  on 
his  back  inside,  while  Sir  Richard  quietly  entering  over  it,  like 
Una  into  the  hut,  told  the  fellow  to  get  up  and  hold  his  horse 
for  him  (which  the  clod,  who  knew  well  enough  that  terrible 
voice,  did  without  further  murmurs),  and  then  strode  straight  to 
the  front  door.  It  was  already  opened.  The  household  had 
been  up  and  about  all  along,  or  the  noise  at  the  entry  had 
aroused  them. 

Sir  Richard  knocked,  however,  at  the  open  door ;  and,  to  his 
astonishment,  his  knock  was  answered  by  Mr.  Leigh  himself, 
fully  dressed,  and  candle  in  hand. 

"  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  !  What,  sir  !  is  this  neighbourly, 
not  to  say  gentle,  to  break  into  my  house  in  the  dead  of  night  tw 

"  I  broke  your  outer  door,  sir,  because  I  was  refused  entrance 
when  I  asked  in  the  queen's  name.  I  knocked  at  your  inner 
one,  as  I  should  have  knocked  at  the  poorest  cottager's  in  the 
parish,  because  I  found  it  open.  You  have  two  Jesuits  here, 
sir  !  and  here  is  the  queen's  warrant  for  apprehending  them.  I 
have  signed  it  with  my  own  hand,  and,  moreover,  serve  it  now, 
with  my  own  hand,  in  order  to  save  you  scandal — and  it  may 
be,  worse.  I  must  have  these  men,  Mr.  Leigh." 

"My  dear  Sir  Richard!— 

"  I  must  have  them,  or  I  must  search  the  house  ;  and  you 
would  not  put  either  yourself  or  me  to  so  shameful  a  necessity  1" 

"  My  dear  Sir  Richard  !— 

"  Must  I,  then,  ask  you  to  stand  back  from  your  own  door- 
way, my  dear  sir  T'  said  Grenvile.  And  then  changing  his  voice 
to  that  fearful  lion's  roar,  for  which  he  was  famous,  and  which 
it  seemed  impossible  that  lips  so  delicate  could  utter,  he  thun- 
dered, "  Knaves,  behind  there  !  Back  !" 

This  was  spoken  to  half-a-dozen  grooms  and  serving-men, 
who,  well  armed,  were  clustered  in  the  passage. 


110  CLOVELLY  COURT  [CHAP.  v. 

"  What?  swords  out,  you  sons  of  cliff  rabbits  ?"  And  in  a 
moment,  Sir  Richard's  long  blade  flashed  out  also,  and  putting 
Mr.  Leigh  gently  aside,  as  if  he  had  been  a  child,  he  walked  up 
to  the  party,  who  vanished  right  and  left ;  having  expected  a  cur 
dog,  in  the  shape  of  a  parish  constable,  and  come  upon  a  lion 
instead.  They  were  stout  fellows  enough,  no  doubt,  in  a  fair 
fight :  but  they  had  no  stomach  to  be  hanged  in  a  row  at  Laun- 
ceston  Castle,  after  a  preliminary  running  through  the  body  by 
that  redoubted  admiral  and  most  unpeaceful  justice  of  the  peace. 

"  And  now,  my  dear  Mr.  Leigh,"  said  Sir  Richard,  as  blandly 
as  ever,  "  where  are  my  men  ?  The  night  is  cold  ;  and  you,  as 
well  as  I,  need  to  be  in  our  beds." 

"  The  men,  Sir  Richard — the  Jesuits — they  are  not  here, 
indeed." 

"  Not  here,  sir  T 

"  On  the  word  of  a  gentleman,  they  left  my  house  an  hour 
ago.  Believe  me,  sir,  they  did.  I  will  swear  to  you  if  you  need." 

"  I  believe  Mr.  Leigh  of  Chapel's  word  without  oaths. 
Whither  are  they  gone?" 

"  Nay,  sir — how  can  I  tell  ?  They  are — they  are,  as  I  may 
say,  fled,  sir  ;  escaped." 

"  With  your  connivance ;  at  least  with  your  son's.  Where 
are  they  gone  V 

"  As  I  live,  I  do  not  know." 

"  Mr.  Leigh — is  this  possible  ?  Can  you  add  untruth  to  that 
treason  from  the  punishment  of  which  I  am  trying  to  shield  you?" 

Poor  Mr.  Leigh  burst  into  tears. 

"  Oh  !  my  God  !  my  God  !  is  it  come  to  this  ?  Over  and 
above  having  the  fear  and  anxiety  of  keeping  these  black  rascals 
in  my  house,  and  having  to  stop  their  villainous  mouths  every 
minute,  for  fear  they  should  hang  me  and  themselves,  I  am  to 
be  called  a  traitor  and  a  liar  in  my  old  age,  and  that,  too,  by 
Richard  Grenvile !  Would  God  I  had  never  been  born  !  Would 
God  I  had  no  soul  to  be  saved,  and  I'd  just  go  and  drown  care 
in  drink,  and  let  the  queen  and  the  pope  fight  it  out  their  own 
way  !"  And  the  poor  old  man  sank  into  a  chair,  and  covered 
his  face  with  his  hands,  and  then  leaped  up  again. 

"  Bless  my  heart !  Excuse  me,  Sir  Richard — to  sit  down 
and  leave  you  standing.  'Slife,  sir,  sorrow  is  making  a  hawbuck 
of  me.  Sit  down,  my  dear  sir !  my  worshipful  sir !  or  rather 
come  with  me  into  my  room,  and  hear  a  poor  wretched  man's 
story,  for  I  swear  before  God  the  men  are  fled ;  and  my  poor 
boy  Eustace  is  not  home  either,  and  the  groom  tells  me  that  his 


CHAP.  V. ]  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME.  Ill 

devil  of  a  cousin  has  broken  his  jaw  for  him  ;  and  his  mother  is 
all  but  mad  this  hour  past.  Good  lack  !  good  lack  !" 

"  He  nearly  murdered  his  angel  of  a  cousin,  sir  !"  said  Sir 
Richard  severely. 

"  What,  sir?     They  never  told  me." 

"  He  had  stabbed  his  cousin  Frank  three  times,  sir,  before 
Amyas,  who  is  as  noble  a  lad  as  walks  God's  earth,  struck  him 
down.  And  in  defence  of  what,  forsooth,  did  he  play  the  ruffian 
and  the  swashbuckler,  but  to  bring  home  to  your  house  this 
letter,  sir,  which  you  shall  hear  at  your  leisure,  the  moment  I 
have  taken  order  about  your  priests."  And  walking  out  of  the 
house  he  went  round  and  called  to  Gary  to  come  to  him. 

"  The  birds  are  flown,  Will,"  whispered  he.  "  There  is  but 
one  chance  for  us,  and  that  is  Marsland  Mouth.  If  they  are 
trying  to  take  boat  there,  you  may  be  yet  in  time.  If  they  are 
gone  inland  we  can  do  nothing  till  we  raise  the  hue  and  cry  to- 
morrow." 

And  Will  galloped  off  over  the  downs  toward  Marsland, 
while  Sir  Richard  ceremoniously  walked  in  again,  and  professed 
himself  ready  and  happy  to  have  the  honour  of  an  audience  in 
Mr.  Leigh's  private  chamber.  And  as  we  know  pretty  well 
already  what  was  to  be  discussed  therein,  we  had  better  go 
over  to  Marsland  Mouth,  and,  if  possible,  arrive  there  before 
Will  Gary  :  seeing  that  he  arrived  hot  and  swearing,  half  an 
hour  too  late. 

Note.  — I  have  shrunk  somewhat  from  giving  these  and  other  sketches 
(true  and  accurate  as  I  believe  them  to  be)  of  Ireland  during  Elizabeth's 
reign,  when  the  tyranny  and  lawlessness  of  the  feudal  chiefs  had  reduced 
the  island  to  such  a  state  of  weakness  and  barbarism,  that  it  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  England  either  to  crush  the  Norman-Irish  nobility, 
and  organise  some  sort  of  law  and  order,  or  to  leave  Ireland  an  easy  prey 
to  the  Spaniards,  or  any  other  nation  which  should  go  to  war  with  us. 
The  work  was  done — clumsily  rather  than  cruelly ;  but  wrongs  were  in- 
flicted, and  avenged  by  fresh  wrongs,  and  those  by  fresh  again.  May  the 
memory  of  them  perish  for  ever  !  It  has  been  reserved  for  this  age,  and 
for  the  liberal  policy  of  this  age,  to  see  the  last  ebullitions  of  Celtic  excit- 
ability die  out  harmless  and  ashamed  of  itself,  and  to  find  that  the  Irish- 
man, when  he  is  brought  as  a  soldier  under  the  regenerative  influence  of 
law,  discipline,  self-respect,  and  loyalty,  can  prove  himself  a  worthy  rival 
of  the  more  stern  Norse -Saxon  warrior.  God  grant  that  the  military 
brotherhood  between  Irish  and  English,  which  is  the  special  glory  of  the 
present  war,  may  be  the  germ  of  a  brotherhood  industrial,  political,  and 
hereafter,  perhaps,  religious  also ;  and  that  not  merely  the  corpses  of 
heroes,  but  the  feuds  and  wrongs  which  have  parted  them  for  centuries, 
may  lie  buried,  once  and  for  ever,  in  the  noble  graves  of  Alma  and  Inkerman. 


112  THE  COOMBES  OF  [CHAP.  VI. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   COOMBES   OF    THE   FAR   WEST. 

' '  Far,  far  from  hence 
The  Adriatic  breaks  in  a  warm  bay 
Among  the  green  Illyrian  hills,  and  there 
The  sunshine  in  the  happy  glens  is  fair, 
And  by  the  sea  and  in  the  brakes 
The  grass  is  cool,  the  sea-side  air 
Buoyant  and  fresh,  the  mountain  flowers 
More  virginal  and  sweet  than  ours." 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

AND  even  such  are  those  delightful  glens,  which  cut  the  high 
table-land  of  the  confines  of  Devon  and  Cornwall,  and  opening 
each  through  its  gorge  of  down  and  rock,  towards  the  boundless 
Western  Ocean.  Each  is  like  the  other,  and  each  is  like  no 
other  English  scenery.  Each  has  its  upright  walls,  inland  of 
rich  oak-wood,  nearer  the  sea  of  dark  green  furze,  then  of  smooth 
turf,  then  of  weird  black  cliffs  which  range  out  right  and  left 
far  into  the  deep  sea,  in  castles,  spires,  and  wings  of  jagged 
iron-stone.  Each  has  its  narrow  strip  of  fertile  meadow,  its 
crystal  trout  stream  winding  across  and  across  from  one  hill-foot 
to  the  other ;  its  grey  stone  mill,  with  the  water  sparkling  and 
humming  round  the  dripping  wheel ;  its  dark  rock  pools  above 
the  tide  mark,  where  the  salmon -trout  gather  in  from  their 
Atlantic  wanderings,  after  each  autumn  flood :  its  ridge  of  blown 
sand,  bright  with  golden  trefoil  and  crimson  lady's  finger ;  its 
grey  bank  of  polished  pebbles,  down  which  the  stream  rattles 
toward  the  sea  below.  Each  has  its  black  field  of  jagged  shark's- 
tooth  rock  which  paves  the  cove  from  side  to  side,  streaked  with 
here  and  there  a  pink  line  of  shell  sand,  and  laced  with  white 
foam  from  the  eternal  surge,  stretching  in  parallel  lines  out  to 
the  westward,  in  strata  set  upright  .on  edge,  or  tilted  towards 
each  other  at  strange  angles  by  primeval  earthquakes  ; — such  is 
the  "  Mouth  " — as  those  coves  are  called ;  and  such  the  jaw  of 
teeth  which  they  display,  one  rasp  of  which  would  grind  abroad 
the  timbers  of  the  stoutest  ship.  To  landward,  all  richness, 
softness,  and  peace;  to  seaward,  a  waste  and  howling  wilderness 
of  rock  and  roller,  barren  to  the  fisherman,  and  hopeless  to  the 
shipwrecked  mariner. 

In  only  one  of  these  "  Mouths  "  is  a  landing  for  boats,  made 
possible  by  a  long  sea-wall  of  rock,  which  protects  it  from  the 


CHAP,  vi.]  THE  FAR  WEST.  113 

rollers  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  that  mouth  is  Marsland,  the  abode 
of  the  White  Witch,  Lucy  Passmore ;  whither,  as  Sir  Richard 
Greuvile  rightly  judged,  the  Jesuits  were  gone.  But  before 
the  Jesuits  came,  two  other  persons  were  standing  on  that 
lonely  beach,  under  the  bright  October  moon,  namely,  Rose 
Salterne  and  the  White  Witch  herself;  for  Rose,  fevered  with 
curiosity  and  superstition,  and  allured  by  the  very  wildness  and 
possible  danger  of  the  spell,  had  kept  her  appointment ;  and,  a 
few  minutes  before  midnight,  stood  on  the  grey  shingle  beach 
with  her  counsellor. 

"  You  be  safe  enough  here  to-night,  Miss.  My  old  man  is 
snoring  sound  abed,  and  there's  no  other  soul  ever  sets  foot  here 
o'  nights,  except  it  be  the  mermaids  now  and  then.  Goodness, 
Father,  where's  our  boat?  It  ought  to  be  up  here  on  the 
pebbles." 

Rose  pointed  to  a  strip  of  sand  some  forty  yards  nearer  the 
sea,  where  the  boat  lay. 

"Oh,  the  lazy  old  villain!  he's  been  round  the  rocks  after 
pollock  this  evening,  and  never  taken  the  trouble  to  hale 
the  boat  up.  I'll  trounce  him  for  it  when  I  get  home.  I 
only  hope  he's  made  her  fast  where  she  is,  that's  all !  He's 
more  plague  to  me  than  ever  my  money  will  be.  0  deary 
me!" 

And  the  goodvvife  bustled  down  toward  the  boat,  with  Rose 
behind  her. 

"  Iss,  'tis  fast,  sure  enough  :  and  the  oars  aboard  too ! 
Well,  I  never  !  Oh,  the  lazy  thief,  to  leave  they  here  to  be 
stole  !  I'll  just  sit  in  the  boat,  dear,  and  watch  mun,  while 
you  go  down  to  the  say  ;  for  you  must  be  all  alone  to  yourself 
you  know,  or  you'll  see  nothing.  There's  the  looking-glass  ; 
now  go,  and  dip  your  head  three  times,  and  mind  you  don't  look 
to  land  or  sea  before  you've  said  the  words,  and  looked  upon 
the  glass.  Now,  be  quick,  it's  just  upon  midnight." 

And  she  coiled  herself  up  in  the  boat,  while  Rose  went 
faltering  down  the  strip  of  sand,  some  twenty  yards  farther,  and 
there  slipping  off  her  clothes,  stood  shivering  and  trembling  for 
a  moment  before  she  entered  the  sea. 

She  was  between  two  walls  of  rock  :  that  on  her  left  hand, 
some  twenty  feet  high,  hid  her  in  deepest  shade  ;  that  on  her 
right,  though  much  lower,  took  the  whole  blaze  of  the  midnight 
moon.  Great  festoons  of  live  and  purple  sea-weed  hung  from 
it,  shading  dark  cracks  and  crevices,  tit  hauntsforallthe  goblins 
of  the  sea.  On  her  left  hand,  the  peaks  of  the  rock  frowned 


114  THE  COOMBES  OF  [CHAP.  VI. 

down  ghastly  black;  on  her  right  hand,  far  aloft,  the  downs 
slept  bright  and  cold. 

The  breeze  had  died  away ;  not  even  a  roller  broke  the  per- 
fect stillness  of  the  cove.  The  gulls  were  all  asleep  upon  the 
ledges.  Over  all  was  a  true  autumn  silence ;  a  silence  which 
may  be  heard.  She  stood  awed,  and  listened  in  hope  of  a 
sound  which  might  tell  her  that  any  living  thing  beside  herself 
existed. 

There  was  a  faint  bleat,  as  of  a  new-born  lamb,  high  above 
her  head ;  she  started  and  looked  up.  Then  a  wail  from  the 
cliffs,  as  of  a  child  in  pain,  answered  by  another  from  the  oppo- 
site rocks.  They  were  but  the  passing  snipe,  and  the  otter 
calling  to  her  brood ;  but  to  her  they  were  mysterious,  super- 
natural goblins,  come  to  answer  to  her  call.  Nevertheless,  they 
only  quickened  her  expectation ;  and  the  witch  had  told  her  not 
to  fear  them.  If  she  performed  the  rite  duly,  nothing  would 
harm  her :  but  she  could  hear  the  beating  of  her  own  heart, 
as  she  stepped,  mirror  in  hand,  into  the  cold  water,  waded 
hastily,  as  far  as  she  dare,  and  then  stopped  aghast. 

A  ring  of  flame  was  round  her  waist ;  every  limb  was 
bathed  in  lambent  light ;  all  the  multitudinous  life  of  the 
autumn  sea,  stirred  by  her  approach,  had  flashed  suddenly  into 
glory  ;— 

"  And  around  her  the  lamps  of  the  sea  nymphs, 
Myriad  fiery  globes,  swam  heaving  and  panting,  and  rainbows, 
Crimson  and  azure  and  emerald,  were  broken  in  star-showers,  lighting 
Far  through  the  wine-dark  depths  of  the  crystal,  the  gardens  of  Nereus, 
Coral  and  sea-fan  and  tangle,  the  blooms  and  the  palms  of  the  ocean." 

She  could  see  every  shell  which  crawled  on  the  white  sand  at 
her  feet,  every  rock-fish  which  played  in  and  out  of  the  crannies, 
and  stared  at  her  with  its  broad  bright  eyes  ;  while  the  great 
palmate  oarweeds  which  waved  along  the  chasm,  half-seen  in 
the  glimmering  water,  seemed  to  beckon  her  down  with  long 
brown  hands  to  a  grave  amid  their  chilly  bowers.  She  turned 
to  flee  :  but  she  had  gone  too  far  now  to  retreat ;  hastily  dipping 
her  head  three  times,  she  hurried  out  to  the  sea-marge,  and 
looking  through  her  dripping  locks  at  the  magic  mirror,  pro- 
nounced the  incantation — 

"  A  maiden  pure,  here  I  stand, 
Neither  on  sea,  nor  yet  on  land  ; 
Angels  watch  me  on  either  hand. 
If  you  be  landsman,  come  down  the  strand  ; 
If  you  be  sailor,  come  up  the  sand  ; 
If  you  be  angel,  come  from  the  sky, 


CHAP.  VI.]  THti  FAR   WEST.  115 

Look  in  my  glass,  aiid  pass  me  by  ; 
Look  in  my  glass,  and  go  from  the  shore  ; 
Leave  me,  but  love  me  for  evermore." 

The  incantation  was  hardly  finished  ;  her  eyes  were  straining 
into  the  mirror,  where,  as  may  be  supposed,  nothing  appeared 
but  the  sparkle  of  the  drops  from  her  own  tresses,  when  she  heard 
rattling  down  the  pebbles  the  hasty  feet  of  men  and  horses. 

She  darted  into  a  cavern  of  the  high  rock,  and  hastily 
dressed  herself :  the  steps  held  on  right  to  the  boat.  Peeping 
out,  half-dead  with  terror,  she  saw  there  four  men,  two  of  whom 
had  just  leaped  from  their  horses,  and  turning  them  adrift, 
began  to  help  the  other  two  in  running  the  boat  down. 

Whereon,  out  of  the  stern  sheets,  arose,  like  an  angry  ghost, 
the  portly  figure  of  Lucy  Passmorc,  and  shrieked  in  shrillest 
treble — 

"  Eh  !  ye  villains,  ye  roogs,  what  do  ye  want  staling  poor 
folks'  boats  by  night  like  this?" 

The  whole  party  recoiled  in  terror,  and  one  turned  to  run 
up  the  beach,  shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  "  'Tis  a  mar- 
maiden — a  marmaiden  asleep  in  Willy  Passmore's  boat !" 

"  I  wish  it  were  any  sich  good  luck,"  she  could  hear  Will 
say ;  "  'tis  iny  wife,  oh  dear  ! "  and  he  cowered  down,  expecting 
the  hearty  cuff  which  he  received  duly,  as  the  White  Witch, 
leaping  out  of  the  boat,  dared  any  man  to  touch  it,  and  thun- 
dered to  her  husband  to  go  home  to  bed. 

The  wily  dame,  as  Rose  well  guessed,  was  keeping  up  this 
delay  chiefly  to  gain  time  for  her  pupil :  but  she  had  also  more 
solid  reasons  for  making  the  fight  as  hard  as  possible ;  for  she, 
as  well  as  Rose,  had  already  discerned  in  the  ungainly  figure  of 
one  of  the  party  the  same  suspicious  Welsh  gentleman,  on  whose 
calling  she  had  divined  long  ago  ;  and  she  was  so  loyal  a  sub- 
ject as  to  hold  in  extreme  horror  her  husband's  meddling  with 
such  "  Popish  skulkers  "  (as  she  called  the  whole  party  roundly 
to  their  face) — unless  on  consideration  of  a  very  handsome  sum 
of  money.  In  vain  Parsons  thundered,  Campian  entreated, 
Mr.  Leigh's  groom  swore,  and  her  husband  danced  round  in 
an  agony  of  mingled  fear  and  covetousness. 

"  No,"  she  cried,  "  as  I  am  an  honest  woman  and  loyal ! 
This  is  why  you  left  the  boat  down  to  the  shoore,  you  old 
traitor,  you,  is  it  ?  To  help  off  sich  noxious  trade  as  this  out 
of  the  hands  of  her  Majesty's  quorum  and  rotulorum  ?  Eh  1 
Stand  back,  cowards  !  Will  you  strike  a  woman  1" 

This  last  speech  (as  usual)  was  merely  indicative  of  her 


116  THE  COOMBES  OF  [CHAP.  VI. 

intention  to  strike  the  men ;  for,  getting  out  one  of  the  oars, 
she  swung  it  round  and  round  fiercely,  and  at  last  caught 
Father  Parsons  such  a  crack  across  the  shins,  that  he  retreated 
with  a  howl. 

"  Lucy,  Lucy  !"  shrieked  her  husband,  in  shrillest  Devon 
falsetto,  "  be  you  mazed  1  Be  you  mazed,  lass  1  They  promised 
me  two  gold  nobles  before  I'd  lend  them  the  boot ! " 

"  Tu  1"  shrieked  the  matron,  with  a  tone  of  ineffable  scorn. 
"  And  do  yu  call  yourself  a  man  1" 

"  Tu  nobles  !  tu  nobles  !"  shrieked  he  again,  hopping  about 
at  oar's  length. 

"  Tu  1     And  would  you  sell  your  soul  under  ten  1" 

"Oh,  if  that  is  it,"  cried  poor  Campian,  "give  her  ten,  give 
her  ten,  brother  Pars — Morgans,  I  mean  ;  and  take  care  of 
your  shins,  '  Offa  Cerbero,'  you  know — Oh,  virago  !  '  Furens 
quid  foemina  possit ! '  Certainly  she  is  some  Lamia,  some 
Gorgon,  some " 

"Take  that,  for  your  Lamys  and  Gorgons  to  an  honest 
woman  !"  and  in  a  moment  poor  Campian's  thin  legs  were  cut 
from  under  him,  while  the  virago,  "mounting  on  his  trunk 
astride,"  like  that  more  famous  one  on  Hudibras,  cried,  "  Ten 
nobles,  or  I'll  kep  ye  here  till  morning  !"  And  the  ten  nobles 
were  paid  into  her  hand. 

And  now  the  boat,  its  dragon  guardian  being  pacified,  was 
run  down  to  the  sea,  and  close  past  the  nook  where  poor  little 
Rose  Avas  squeezing  herself  into  the  farthest  and  darkest  corner, 
among  wet  sea-weed  and  rough  barnacles,  holding  her  breath  as 
they  approached. 

They  passed  her,  and  the  boat's  keel  was  already  in  the 
water ;  Lucy  had  followed  them  close,  for  reasons  of  her  own, 
and  perceiving  close  to  the  water's  edge  a  dark  cavern,  cun- 
ningly surmised  that  it  contained  Rose,  and  planted  her  ample 
person  right  across  its  mouth,  while  she  grumbled  at  her 
husband  the  strangers,  and  above  all  at  Mr.  Leigh's  groom,  to 
whom  she  prophesied  pretty  plainly  Launceston  gaol  and  the 
gallows ;  while  the  wretched  serving- man,  who  would  as  soon 
have  dared  to  leap  off  Welcombe  Cliff,  as  to  return  railing  for 
railing  to  the  White  Witch,  in  vain  entreated  her  mercy,  and 
tried,  by  all  possible  dodging,  to  keep  one  of  the  party  between 
himself  and  her,  lest  her  redoubted  eye  should  "  overlook  "  him 
once  more  to  his  ruin. 

But  the  night's  adventures  were  not  ended  yet ;  for  just  as 
the  boat  was  launched,  a  faint  halloo  was  heard  upon  the  beach, 


CHAP.  VI.]  THE  FAR  WEST.  117 

and  a  minute  after,  a  horseman  plunged  down  the  pebbles,  and 
along  the  sand,  and  pulling  his  horse  up  on  its  haunches  close 
to  the  terrified  group,  dropped,  rather  than  leaped,  from  the 
saddle. 

The  serving-man,  though  he  dared  not  tackle  a  witch,  knew 
well  enough  how  to  deal  with  a  swordsman  ;  and  drawing, 
sprang  upon  the  new-comer  :  and  then  recoiled — 

"  God  forgive  me,  it's  Mr.  Eustace  !  Oh,  dear  sir,  I  took 
you  for  one  of  Sir  Richard's  men  !  Oh,  sir,  you're  hurt !" 

"A  scratch,  a  scratch!"  almost  moaned  Eustace.  "Help 
me  into  the  boat,  Jack.  Gentlemen,  I  must  with  you." 

"Not  with  us,  surely,  my  dear  son,  vagabonds  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth?"  said  kind-hearted  Campian. 

"  With  you,  for  ever.  All  is  over  here.  Whither  God  and 
the  cause  lead  " — and  he  staggered  toward  the  boat. 

As  he  passed  Rose,  she  saw  his  ghastly  bleeding  face,  half 
bound  up  with  a  handkerchief,  which  could  not  conceal  the  con- 
vulsions of  rage,  shame,  and  despair,  which  twisted  it  from  all 
its  usual  beauty.  His  eyes  glared  wildly  round — and  once, 
right  into  the  cavern.  They  met  hers,  so  full,  and  keen,  and 
dreadful,  that  forgetting  she  was  utterly  invisible,  the  terrified 
girl  was  on  the  point  of  shrieking  aloud. 

"  He  has  overlooked  me  !"  said  she,  shuddering  to  herself, 
as  she  recollected  his  threat  of  yesterday. 

"  Who  has  wounded  you1?"  asked  Campian. 

"  My  coiisin — Amyas — and  taken  the  letter  !" 

"The  Devil  take  him,  then!"  cried  Parsons,  stamping  up 
and  down  upon  the  sand  in  fury. 

"  Ay,  curse  him — you  may  !  I  dare  not  !  He  saved  me — 
sent  me  here  !" — and  with  a  groan,  he  made  an  effort  to  enter 
the  boat. 

"  Oh,  my  dear  young  gentleman,"  cried  Lucy  Passmore,  her 
woman's  heart  bursting  out  at  the  sight  of  pain,  "you  must 
not  goo  forth  with  a  grane  wound  like  to  that.  Do  ye  let  me 
just  bind  mun  up — do  ye  now  !"  and  she  advanced. 

Eustace  thrust  her  back. 

"  No  !  better  bear  it.  I  deserve  it — devils  !  I  deserve  it ! 
On  board,  or  we  shall  all  be  lost — William  Cary  is  close 
behind  me  !" 

And  at  that  news  the  boat  was  thrust  into  the  sea,  faster 
than  ever  it  went  before,  and  only  in  time ;  for  it  was  but  just 
round  the  rocks,  and  out  of  sight,  when  the  rattle  of  Gary's 
horsehoofs  was  heard  above. 


118  THE  COOMBES  OF  THE  FAR  WEST.          [CHAP.  VI. 

"  That  rascal  of  Mr.  Leigh's  will  catch  it  now,  the  Popish 
villain!"  said  Lucy  Passmore  aloud.  "You  lie  still  there, 
dear  life,  and  settle  your  sperrits ;  you'm  so  safe  as  ever  was 
rabbit  to  burrow.  I'll  see  what  happens,  if  I  die  for  it ! "  And 
so  saying,  she  squeezed  herself  up  through  a  cleft  to  a  higher 
ledge,  from  whence  she  could  see  what  passed  in  the  valley. 

"  There  mun  is !  in  the  meadow,  trying  to  catch  the  horses ! 
There  comes  Mr.  Gary  !  Goodness,  Father,  how  a  rid'th  !  he's 
over  wall  already !  Ron,  Jack  !  ron  then  !  A'll  get  to  the 
river  !  No,  a  waint !  Goodness,  Father  !  There's  Mr.  Gary 
cotched  mun  !  A's  down,  a's  down  ! " 

"  Is  he  dead  1"  asked  Rose,  shuddering. 

"  Iss,  fegs,  dead  as  nits  !  and  Mr.  Gary  off  his  horse,  stand- 
ing overthwart  mun  !  No,  a  baint !  A's  up  now.  Suspose 
he  was  hit  wi'  the  flat.  Whatever  is  Mr.  Gary  tu  1  Telling 
wi'  mun,  a  bit.  0  dear,  dear,  dear  !" 

"  Has  he  killed  him  ?"  cried  poor  Rose. 

"  No,  fegs,  no  !  kecking  mun,  kecking  mun,  so  hard  as 
ever  was  futeball !  Goodness,  Father,  who  did  ever  *?  If  a 
haven't  kecked  mun  right  into  river,  and  got  on  mun's  horse 
and  rod  away  !" 

And  so  saying,  down  she  came  again. 

"  And  now  then,  my  dear  life,  us  be  better  to  goo  hoom 
and  get  you  sommat  warm.  You'm  mortal  cold,  I  rackon,  by 
now.  I  was  cruel  feafd  for  ye  :  but  I  kept  mun  off  clever, 
didn't  I,  now  ?" 

"  I  wish — I  wish  I  had  not  seen  Mr.  Leigh's  face  !" 

"  Iss,  dreadful,  weren't  it,  poor  young  soul  ;  a  sad  night  for 
his  poor  mother !" 

"  Lucy,  I  can't  get  his  face  out  of  my  mind.  I'm  sure  he 
overlooked  me." 

"0  then  !  who  ever  heard  the  like  o'  that  ?  When  young 
gentlemen  do  overlook  young  ladies,  tain't  thikketheor  aways, 
I  knoo.  Never  you  think  on  it." 

"  But  I  can't  help  thinking  of  it,"  said  Rose.  "  Stop. 
Shall  we  go  home  yet  1  Where's  that  servant  V 

"  Never  mind,  he  waint  see  us,  here  under  the  hill.  I'd 
much  sooner  to  know  where  my  old  man  was.  I've  a  sort  of 
a  forecasting  in  my  inwards,  like,  as  I  always  has  when  aught's 
gwain  to  happen,  as  though  I  shuldn't  zee  mun  again,  like,  I 
have,  Miss.  Well — he  was  a  bedient  old  soul,  after  all,  he  was. 
Goodness,  Father!  and  all  this  while  us  have  forgot  the  very 
thing  us  come  about !  Who  did  you  see  ?" 


CHAP.  VII.]    TRAGICAL  HISTORY  OF  MR,  JOHN  OXENHAM.      119 

"Only  that  face  !"  said  Rose,  shuddering. 

"  Not  in  the  glass,  maid  1     Say  then,  not  in  the  glass  ?" 

"  Would  to  heaven  it  had  been  !  Lucy,  what  if  he  were 
the  man  I  was  fated  to " 

"He?  Why,  he's  a  praste,  a  Popish  praste,  that  can't  marry 
if  he  would,  poor  wratch." 

"He  is  none  ;  and  I  have  cause  enough  to  know  it !"  And, 
for  want  of  a  better  confidant,  Rose  poured  into  the  willing  ears 
of  her  companion  the  whole  story  of  yesterday's  meeting. 

"  He's  a  pretty  wooer  !"  said  Lucy  at  last  contemptuously. 
"  Be  a  brave  maid,  then,  be  a  brave  maid,  and  never  terrify 
yourself  with  his  unlucky  face.  It's  because  there  was  none  here 
worthy  of  ye,  that  ye  seed  none  in  glass.  Maybe  he's  to  be  a 
foreigner,  from  over  seas,  and  that's  why  his  sperit  was  so  long 
a  coming.  A  duke,  or  a  prince  to  the  least,  I'll  warrant,  he'll 
be,  that  carries  off  the  Rose  of  Bideford." 

But  in  spite  of  all  the  good  dame's  flattery,  Rose  could  not 
wipe  that  fierce  face  away  from  her  eyeballs.  She  reached 
home  safely,  and  crept  to  bed  undiscovered  :  and  when  the  next 
morning,  as  was  to  be  expected,  found  her  laid  up  with  some- 
thing very  like  a  fever,  from  excitement,  terror,  and  cold,  the 
phantom  grew  stronger  and  stronger  before  her,  and  it  required 
all  her  woman's  tact  and  self-restraint  to  avoid  betraying  by  her 
exclamations  what  had  happened  on  that  fantastic  night.  After 
a  fortnight's  weakness,  however,  she  recovered  and  went  back 
to  Bideford  :  but  ere  she  arrived  there,  Amyas  was  far  across 
the  seas  on  his  way  to  Milford  Haven,  as  shall  be  told  in  the 
ensuing  chapters. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   TRUE  AND   TRAGICAL   HISTORY   OF   MR.    JOHN   OXENHAM 
OF   PLYMOUTH. 

' '  The  fair  breeze  blew,  the  white  foam  flew  ; 

The  furrow  follow'd  free  ; 
We  were  the  first  that  ever  burst 
Into  that  silent  sea." 

The  Ancient  Mariner. 

IT  was  too  late  and  too  dark  last  night  to  see  the  old  house  at 
Stow.  We  will  look  round  us,  then,  this  bright  October  day, 
while  Sir  Richard  and  Amyas,  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  fore- 
noon, are  pacing  up  and  down  the  terraced  garden  to  the  south. 


120  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vu. 

Amyas  has  slept  till  luncheon,  i.e.  till  an  hour  ago :  but  Sir 
Richard,  in  spite  of  the  bustle  of  last  night,  was  up  and  in  the 
valley  by  six  o'clock,  recreating  the  valiant  souls  of  himself  and 
two  terrier  dogs  by  the  chase  of  sundry  badgers. 

Old  Stow  House  stands,  or  rather  stood,  some  four  miles 
beyond  the  Cornish  border,  on  the  northern  slope  of  the  largest 
and  loveliest  of  those  coombes  of  which  I  spoke  in  the  last 
chapter.  Eighty  years  after  Sir  Richard's  time  there  arose 
there  a  huge  Palladian  pile,  bedizened  with  every  monstrosity 
of  bad  taste,  which  was  built,  so  the  story  runs,  by  Charles  the 
Second,  for  Sir  Richard's  great  grandson,  the  heir  of  that  famous 
Sir  Bevil  who  defeated  the  Parliamentary  troops  at  Stratton, 
and  died  soon  after,  fighting  valiantly  at  Lansdowne  over  Bath. 
But,  like  most  other  things  which  owed  their  existence  to  the 
Stuarts,  it  rose  only  to  fall  again.  An  old  man  who  had  seen, 
as  a  boy,  the  foundation  of  the  new  house  laid,  lived  to  see  it 
pulled  down  again,  and  the  very  bricks  and  timber  sold  upon 
the  spot ;  and  since  then  the  stables  have  become  a  farm-house, 
the  tennis-court  a  sheep-cote,  the  great  quadrangle  a  rick-yard ; 
and  civilisation,  spreading  wave  on  wave  so  fast  elsewhere,  has 
surged  back  from  that  lonely  corner  of  the  land — let  us  hope, 
only  for  a  while. 

But  I  am  not  writing  of  that  great  new  Stow  House,  of  the 
past  glories  whereof  quaint  pictures  still  hang  in  the  neighbour- 
ing houses ;  nor  of  that  famed  Sir  Bevil,  most  beautiful  and 
gallant  of  his  generation,  on  whom,  with  his  grandfather  Sir 
Richard,  old  Prince  has  his  pompous  epigram — 

' '  Where  next  shall  famous  Grenvil's  ashes  stand  ? 
Thy  grandsire  fills  the  sea,  and  thou  the  land." 

I  have  to  deal  with  a  simpler  age,  and  a  sterner  generation ; 
and  with  the  old  house,  which  had  stood  there,  in  part  at  least, 
from  grey  and  mythic  ages,  when  the  first  Sir  Richard,  son  of 
Hamon  Dentatus,  Lord  of  Carboyle,  the  grandson  of  Duke 
Robert,  son  of  Rou,  settled  at  Bideford,  after  slaying  the  Prince 
of  South-Galis,  and  the  Lord  of  Glamorgan,  and  gave  to  the 
Cistercian  monks  of  Neath  all  his  conquests  in  South  Wales. 
It  was  a  huge  rambling  building,  half  castle,  half  dwelling-house, 
such  as  may  be  seen  still  (almost  an  unique  specimen)  in 
Compton  Castle  near  Torquay,  the  dwelling-place  of  Humphrey 
Gilbert,  Walter  Raleigh's  half-brother,  and  Richard  Grenvile's 
bosom  friend,  of  whom  more  hereafter.  On  three  sides,  to  the 
north,  west,  and  south,  the  lofty  walls  of  the  old  ballium  still 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  121 

stood,  with  their  machicolated  turrets,  loopholes,  and  dark 
downward  crannies  for  dropping  stones  and  fire  on  the  besiegers, 
the  relics  of  a  more  unsettled  age :  but  the  southern  court  of 
the  ballium  had  become  a  flower-garden,  with  quaint  terraces, 
statues,  knots  of  flowers,  clipped  yews  and  hollies,  and  all  the 
pedantries  of  the  topiarian  art.  And  toward  the  east,  where 
the  vista  of  the  valley  opened,  the  old  walls  were  gone,  and  the 
frowning  Norman  keep,  ruined  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  had 
been  replaced  by  the  rich  and  stately  architecture  of  the  Tudors. 
Altogether,  the  house,  like  the  time,  was  in  a  transitionary 
state,  and  represented  faithfully  enough  the  passage  of  the  old 
middle  age  into  the  new  life  which  had  just  burst  into  blossom 
throughout  Europe,  never,  let  us  pray,  to  see  its  autumn  or  its 
winter. 

From  the  house  on  three  sides,  the  hill  sloped  steeply  down, 
and  the  garden  where  Sir  Richard  and  Amyas  were  walking  gave 
a  truly  English  prospect.  At  one  turn  they  could  catch,  over  the 
western  walls,  a  glimpse  of  the  blue  ocean  flecked  with  passing 
sails ;  and  at  the  next,  spread  far  below  them,  range  on  range 
of  fertile  park,  stately  avenue,  yellow  autumn  woodland,  and 
purple  heather  moors,  lapping  over  and  over  each  other  up  the 
valley  to  the  old  British  earthwork,  which  stood  black  and  furze- 
grown  on  its  conical  peak  ;  and  standing  out  against  the  sky  on 
the  highest  bank  of  hill  which  closed  the  valley  to  the  east,  the 
lofty  tower  of  Kilkhampton  church,  rich  with  the  monuments 
and  offerings  of  five  centuries  of  Grenviles.  A  yellow  eastern 
haze  hung  soft  over  park,  and  wood,  and  moor ;  the  red  cattle 
lowed  to  each  other  as  they  stood  brushing  away  the  flies  in  the 
rivulet  far  below ;  the  colts  in  the  horse-park  close  on  their  right 
whinnied  as  they  played  together,  and  their  sires  from  the 
Queen's  Park,  on  the  opposite  hill,  answered  them  in  fuller 
though  fainter  voices.  A  rutting  stag  made  the  still  woodland 
rattle  with  his  hoarse  thunder,  and  a  rival  far  up  the  valley  gave 
back  a  trumpet  note  of  defiance,  and  was  himself  defied  from 
heathery  brows  which  quivered  far  away  above,  half  seen  through 
the  veil  of  eastern  mist.  And  close  at  home,  upon  the  terrace 
before  the  house,  amid  romping  spaniels,  and  golden -haired 
children,  sat  Lady  Grenvile  herself,  the  beautiful  St.  Leger  of 
Annery,  the  central  jewel  of  all  that  glorious  place,  and  looked 
down  at  her  noble  children,  and  then  up  at  her  more  noble 
husband,  and  round  at  that  broad  paradise  of  the  West,  till  life 
seemed  too  full  of  happiness,  and  heaven  of  light. 

And  all  the  while  up  and  down  paced  Amyas  and  Sir  Richard, 


122  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

talking  long,  earnestly,  and  slow  ;  for  they  both  knew  that  the 
turning  point  of  the  boy's  life  was  come. 

"  Yes,"  said  Sir  Richard,  after  Amyas,  in  his  blunt  simple 
•way,  had  told  him  the  whole  story  about  Rose  Salterne  and  his 
brother, — "  yes,  sweet  lad,  thou  hast  chosen  the  better  part,  thou 
and  thy  brother  also,  and  it  shall  not  be  taken  from  you.  Only 
be  strong,  lad,  and  trust  in  God  that  He  will  make  a  man  of  you." 

"  I  do  trust,"  said  Amyas. 

"  Thank  God,"  said  Sir  Richard,  "  that  you  have  yourself 
taken  from  my  heart  that  which  was  my  great  anxiety  for  you, 
from  the  day  that  your  good  father,  who  sleeps  in  peace,  com- 
mitted you  to  my  hands.  For  all  best  things,  Amyas,  become, 
when  misused,  the  very  worst ;  and  the  love  of  woman,  because 
it  is  able  to  lift  man's  soul  to  the  heavens,  is  also  able  to  drag 
him  down  to  hell.  But  you  have  learnt  better,  Amyas ;  and 
know,  with  our  old  German  forefathers,  that,  as  Tacitus  saith, 
'  Sera  juvenum  Venus,  ideoque  inexhausta  pubertas.'  And  not 
only  that,  Amyas  ;  but  trust  me,  that  silly  fashion  of  the  French 
and  Italians,  to  be  hanging  ever  at  some  woman's  apron  string, 
so  that  no  boy  shall  count  himself  a  man  unless  he  can  'vag- 
ghezziare  le  donne,'  whether  maids  or  wives,  alas !  matters  little ; 
that  fashion,  I  say,  is  little  less  hurtful  to  the  soul  than  open 
sin ;  for  by  it  are  bred  vanity  and  expense,  envy  and  heartburn- 
ing, yea,  hatred  and  murder  often ;  and  even  if  that  be  escaped, 
yet  the  rich  treasure  of  a  manly  worship,  which  should  be  kept 
for  one  alone,  is  squandered  and  parted  upon  many,  and  the  bride 
at  last  comes  in  for  nothing  but  the  very  last  leavings  and  caput 
mortmim  of  her  bridegroom's  heart,  and  becomes  a  mere  orna- 
ment for  his  table,  and  a  means  whereby  he  may  obtain  a  pro- 
geny. May  God,  who  has  saved  me  from  that  death  in  life,  save 
you  also  !"  And  as  he  spoke,  he  looked  down  toward  his  wife 
upon  the  terrace  below  ;  and  she,  as  if  guessing  instinctively  that 
he  was  talking  of  her,  looked  up  with  so  sweet  a  smile,  that  Sir 
Richard's  stern  face  melted  into  a  very  glory  of  spiritual  sunshine. 

Amyas  looked  at  them  both  and  sighed ;  and  then  turning 
the  conversation  suddenly — 

"  And  I  may  go  to  Ireland  to-morrow  1" 

"You  shall  sail  in  the  'Mary'  for  Milford  Haven,  with  these 
letters  to  Winter.  If  the  wind  serves,  you  may  bid  the  master 
drop  down  the  river  to-night,  and  be  off;  for  we  must  lose  no 
time." 

"Winter?"  said  Amyas.  "He  is  no  friend  of  mine,  since 
he  left  Drake  and  us  so  cowardly  at  the  Straits  of  Magellan." 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  123 

"  Duty  must  not  wait  for  private  quarrels,  even  though  they 
be  just  ones,  lad  :  but  he  will  not  be  your  general.  When  you 
come  to  the  Marshal,  or  the  Lord  Deputy,  give  either  of  them 
this  letter,  and  they  will  set  you  work, — and  hard  work  too,  I 
warrant." 

"  I  want  nothing  better." 

"  Eight,  lad  ;  the  best  reward  for  having  wrought  well 
already,  is  to  have  more  to  do ;  and  he  that  has  been  faithful 
over  a  few  things,  must  find  his  account  in  being  made  ruler 
over  many  things.  That  is  the  true  and  heroical  rest,  which 
only  is  worthy  of  gentlemen  and  sons  of  God.  As  for  those 
who,  either  in  this  world  or  the  world  to  come,  look  for  idleness, 
and  hope  that  God  shall  feed  them  with  pleasant  things,  as  it 
were  with  a  spoon,  Amyas,  I  count  them  cowards  and  base,  even 
though  they  call  themselves  saints  and  elect." 

"I  wish  you  could  persuade  my  poor  cousin  of  that." 

"  He  has  yet  to  learn  what  losing  his  life  to  save  it  means, 
Amyas.  Bad  men  have  taught  him  (and  I  fear  these  Ana- 
baptists and  Puritans  at  home  teach  little  else),  that  it  is  the 
one  great  business  of  every  one  to  save  his  own  soul  after  he  dies ; 
every  one  for  himself;  and  that  that,  and  not  divine  self-sacrifice, 
is  the  one  thing  needful,  and  the  better  part  which  Mary  chose." 

"  I  think  men  are  inclined  enough  already  to  be  selfish, 
without  being  taught  that." 

"  Right,  lad.  For  me,  if  I  could  hang  up  such  a  teacher 
on  high  as  an  enemy  of  mankind,  and  a  corrupter  of  youth,  I 
would  do  it  gladly.  Is  there  not  cowardice  and  self-seeking 
enough  about  the  hearts  of  us  fallen  sons  of  Adam,  that  these 
false  prophets,  with  their  baits  of  heaven,  and  their  terrors  of 
hell,  must  exalt  our  dirtiest  vices  into  heavenly  virtues  and  the 
means  of  bliss  ?  Farewell  to  chivalry  and  to  desperate  valour, 
farewell  to  patriotism  and  loyalty,  farewell  to  England  and  to 
the  manhood  of  England,  if  once  it  shall  become  the  fashion  of 
our  preachers  to  bid  every  man,  as  the  Jesuits  do,  take  care 
first  of  what  they  call  the  safety  of  his  soul.  Every  man  will 
be  afraid  to  die  at  his  post,  because  he  will  be  afraid  that  he 
is  not  fit  to  die.  Amyas,  do  thou  do  thy  duty  like  a  man,  to 
thy  country,  thy  queen,  and  thy  God ;  and  count  thy  life  a 
worthless  thing,  as  did  the  holy  men  of  old.  Do  thy  work,  lad  ; 
and  leave  thy  soul  to  the  care  of  Him  who  is  just  and  merciful 
in  this,  that  He  rewards  every  man  according  to  his  work.  Is 
there  respect  of  persons  with  God  1  Now  come  in,  and  take 
the  letters,  and  to  horse.  And  if  I  hear  of  thee  dead  there  at 


124  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vil. 

Smerwick  fort,  with  all  thy  wounds  in  front,  I  shall  weep  for 
thy  mother,  lad;  but  I  shall  have  never  a  sigh  for  thee." 

If  any  one  shall  be  startled  at  hearing  a  fine  gentleman 
and  a  warrior  like  Sir  Richard  quote  Scripture,  and  think 
Scripture  also,  they  must  be  referred  to  the  writings  of  the 
time ;  which  they  may  read  not  without  profit  to  themselves, 
if  they  discover  therefrom  how  it  was  possible  then  for  men  of 
the  world  to  be  thoroughly  ingrained  with  the  Gospel,  and  yet 
to  be  free  from  any  taint  of  superstitious  fear,  or  false  devout- 
ness.  The  religion  of  those  days  was  such  as  no  soldier  need 
have  been  ashamed  of  confessing.  At  least,  Sir  Richard  died 
as  he  lived,  without  a  shudder,  and  without  a  whine ;  and 
these  were  his  last  words,  fifteen  years  after  that,  as  he  lay 
shot  through  and  through,  a  captive  among  Popish  Spaniards, 
priests,  crucifixes,  confession,  extreme  unction,  and  all  other 
means  and  appliances  for  delivering  men  out  of  the  hands  of  a 
God  of  love  : — 

"  Here  die  I,  Richard  Grenvile,  with  a  joyful  and  quiet 
mind ;  for  that  I  have  ended  my  life  as  a  true  soldier  ought, 
fighting  for  his  country,  queen,  religion,  and  honour :  my  soul 
willingly  departing  from  this  body,  leaving  behind  the  lasting 
fame  of  having  behaved  as  every  valiant  soldier  is  in  his  duty 
bound  to  do." 

Those  were  the  last  words  of  Richard  Grenvile.  The  pulpits 
of  those  days  had  taught  them  to  him. 

But  to  return.  That  day's  events  were  not  over  yet.  For, 
when  they  went  down  into  the  house,  the  first  person  whom 
they  met  was  the  old  steward,  in  search  of  his  master. 

"  There  is  a  manner  of  roog,  Sir  Richard,  a  masterless  man, 
at  the  door ;  a  very  forward  fellow,  and  must  needs  speak  with 
you." 

"  A  masterless  man  1  He  had  better  not  to  speak  to  me, 
unless  he  is  in  love  with  gaol  and  gallows." 

"  Well,  your  worship,"  said  the  steward,  "  I  expect  that  is 
what  he  does  want,  for  he  swears  he  will  not  leave  the  gate 
till  he  has  seen  you." 

"  Seen  me  ?  Halidame  !  he  shall  see  me,  here  and  at 
Launceston  too,  if  he  likes.  Bring  him  in." 

"Fegs,  Sir  Richard,  we  are  half  afeard,  with  your  good 
leave " 

"  Hillo,  Tony,"  cried  Amyas,  "who  was  ever  afeard  yet  with 
Sir  Richard's  good  leave?" 

"  What,  has  the  fellow  a  tail  or  horns  1" 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MK.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  125 

"  Massy  no  :  but  I  be  afeard  of  treason  for  your  honour ; 
for  the  fellow  is  pinked  all  over  in  heathen  patterns,  and  as 
brown  as  a  filbert ;  and  a  tall  roog,  a  very  strong  roog,  sir,  and  a 
foreigner  too,  and  a  mighty  staff  with  him.  I  expect  him  to 
be  a  manner  of  Jesuit,  or  wild  Irish,  sir ;  and  indeed  the  grooms 
have  no  stomach  to  handle  him,  nor  the  dogs  neither,  or  he 
had  been  under  the  pump  before  now,  for  they  that  saw  him 
coming  up  the  hill  swear  that  he  had  fire  coming  out  of  his 
mouth." 

"Fire  out  of  his  mouth ?"  said  Sir  Richard.  "The  men 
are  drunk." 

"  Pinked  all  over  ?  He  must  be  a  sailor,"  said  Amyas  ;  "  let 
me  out  and  see  the  fellow,  and  if  he  needs  putting  forth ' 

"  Why,  I  dare  say  he  is  not  so  big  but  what  he  will  go  into 
thy  pocket.  So  go,  lad,  while  I  finish  my  writing." 

Amyas  went  out,  and  at  the  back  door,  leaning  on  his  staff 
stood  a  tall,  raw-boned,  ragged  man,  "  pinked  all  over,"  as  the 
steward  had  said. 

"  Hillo,  lad  !"  quoth  Amyas.  "  Before  we  come  to  talk, 
thou  wilt  please  to  lay  down  that  Plymouth  cloak  of  thine." 
And  he  pointed  to  the  cudgel,  which  among  West -country 
mariners  usually  bore  that  name. 

"  I'll  warrant,"  said  the  old  steward,  "  that  where  he  found 
his  cloak  he  found  a  purse  not  far  off." 

"But  not  hose  or  doublet;  so  the  magical  virtue  of  his 
staff  has  not  helped  him  much.  But  put  down  thy  staff,  man, 
and  speak  like  a  Christian,  if  thou  be  one." 

"I  am  a  Christian,  though  I  look  like  a  heathen ;  and  no 
rogue,  though  a  masterless  man,  alas !  But  I  want  nothing, 
deserving  nothing,  and  only  ask  to  speak  with  Sir  Richard, 
before  I  go  on  my  way." 

There  was  something  stately  and  yet  humble  about  the 
man's  tone  and  manner  which  attracted  Amyas,  and  he  asked 
more  gently  where  he  was  going  and  whence  he  came. 

"  From  Padstow  Port,  sir,  to  Clovelly  town,  to  see  my  old 
mother,  if  indeed  she  be  yet  alive,  which  God  knoweth." 

"  Clovally  man  !  why  didn't  thee  say  thee  was  Clovally 
man  V  asked  all  the  grooms  at  once,  to  whom  a  West  country- 
man was  of  course  a  brother.  The  old  steward  asked — 

"  What's  thy  mother's  name,  then  V 

"  Susan  Yeo." 

"  What,  that  lived  under  the  archway  ]"  asked  a  groom. 

"Lived1?"  said  the  man. 


126  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

"Iss,  sure;  her  died  three  days  since,  so  we  heard,  poor 
soul." 

The  man  stood  quite  silent  and  unmoved  for  a  minute  or 
two ;  and  then  said  quietly  to  himself,  iu  Spanish,  "  That 
which  is,  is  best." 

"  You  speak  Spanish  ? "  asked  Amyas,  more  and  more  in- 
terested. 

"  I  had  need  to  do  so,  young  sir ;  I  have  been  five  years  in 
the  Spanish  Main,  and  only  set  foot  on  shore  two  days  ago ; 
and  if  you  will  let  me  have  speech  of  Sir  Richard,  I  will  tell 
him  that  at  which  both  the  ears  of  him  that  heareth  it  shall 
tingle ;  and  if  not,  I  can  but  go  on  to  Mr.  Gary  of  Clovelly,  if 
he  be  yet  alive,  and  there  disburthen  my  soul ;  but  I  would 
sooner  have  spoken  with  one  that  is  a  mariner  like  to  myself." 

"And  you  shall,"  said  Amyas.  "Steward,  we  will  have 
this  man  in;  for  all  his  rags,  he  is  a  man  of  wit."  And  he 
led  him  in. 

"  I  only  hope  he  ben't  one  of  those  Popish  murderers,"  said 
the  old  steward,  keeping  at  a  safe  distance  from  him  as  they 
entered  the  hall. 

"  Popish,  old  master  ?  There's  little  fear  of  my  being  that. 
Look  here  !"  And  drawing  back  his  rags,  he  showed  a  ghastly 
scar,  which  encircled  his  wrist  and  wound  round  and  up  his 
fore-arm. 

"  I  got  that  on  the  rack,"  said  he  quietly,  "  in  the  Inquisi- 
tion at  Lima." 

"  0  Father  !  Father  !  why  didn't  you  tell  us  that  you  were 
a  poor  Christian  ?"  asked  the  penitent  steward. 

"  Because  I  have  had  nought  but  my  deserts ;  and  but  a 
taste  of  them  either,  as  the  Lord  knoweth  who  delivered  me ; 
and  I  wasn't  going  to  make  myself  a  beggar  and  a  show  on  their 
account." 

"  By  heaven,  you  are  a  brave  fellow  !"  said  Amyas.  "  Come 
along  straight  to  Sir  Richard's  room.!' 

So  in  they  went,  where  Sir  Richard  sat  in  his  library  among 
books,  despatches,  state-papers,  and  warrants ;  for  though  he 
was  not  yet,  as  in  after  times  (after  the  fashion  of  those  days) 
admiral,  general,  member  of  parliament,  privy  councillor, 
justice  of  the  peace,  and  so  forth,  all  at  once,  yet  there  were  few 
great  men  with  whom  he  did  not  correspond,  or  great  matters 
with  which  he  was  not  cognisant. 

"  Hillo,  Amyas,  have  you  bound  the  wild  man  already,  and 
brought  him  in  to  swear  allegiance  ?" 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  127 

But  before  Amyas  could  answer,  the  man  looked  earnestly 
on  him — "Amyas?"  said  he;  "is  that  your  name,  sir  1" 

"  Amyas  Leigh  is  my  name,  at  your  service,  good  fellow." 

"  Of  Burrough  by  Bideford  T 

"  Why  then  1     What  do  you  know  of  me  f 

"  Oh  sir,  sir !  young  brains  and  happy  ones  have  short 
memories ;  but  old  and  sad  brains  too  too  long  ones  often  ! 
Do  you  mind  one  that  was  with  Mr.  Oxenham,  sir  1  A  swearing 
reprobate  he  was,  God  forgive  him,  and  hath  forgiven  him  too, 
for  His  dear  Son's  sake — one,  sir,  that  gave  you  a  horn,  a  toy 
with  a  chart  on  it  V 

"Soul  alive  !"  cried  Amyas,  catching  him  by  the  hand; 
"  and  are  you  he  ?  The  horn  ?  why,  I  have  it  still,  and  will 
keep  it  to  my  dying  day,  too.  But  where  is  Mr.  Oxenham  V 

"  Yes,  my  good  fellow,  where  is  Mr.  Oxenham  ?"  asked  Sir 
Richard,  rising.  "  You  are  somewhat  over-hasty  in  welcoming 
your  old  acquaintance,  Amyas,  before  we  have  heard  from  him 
whether  he  can  give  honest  account  of  himself  and  of  his  cap- 
tain. For  there  is  more  than  one  way  by  which  sailors  may 
come  home  without  their  captains,  as  poor  Mr.  Barker  of  Bristol 
found  to  his  cost.  God  grant  that  there  may  have  been  no  such 
traitorous  dealing  here." 

"  Sir  Richard  Grenvile,  if  I  had  been  a  guilty  man  to  my 
noble  captain,  as  I  have  to  God,  I  had  not  come  here  this  day 
to  you,  from  whom  villainy  has  never  found  favour,  nor  ever 
will ;  for  I  know  your  conditions  well,  sir ;  and  trust  in  the 
Lord,  that  if  you  will  be  pleased  to  hear  me,  you  shall  know 
mine." 

"  Thou  art  a  well-spoken  knave.     We  shall  see." 

"  My  dear  sir,"  said  Amyas  in  a  whisper,  "  I  will  warrant 
this  man  guiltless." 

"  I  verily  believe  him  to  be ;  but  this  is  too  serious  a  matter 
to  be  left  on  guess.  If  he  will  be  sworn 

Whereon  the  man,  humbly  enough,  said,  that  if  it  would 
please  Sir  Richard,  he  would  rather  not  be  sworn. 

"  But  it  does  not  please  me,  rascal !  Did  I  not  warn  thee, 
Amyas  ?" 

"  Sir,"  said  the  man  proudly,  "  God  forbid  that  my  word 
should  not  be  as  good  as  my  oath  :  but  it  is  against  my  con- 
science to  be  sworn." 

"  What  have  we  here  ?  some  fantastical  Anabaptist,  who  is 
wiser  than  his  teachers." 

"  My  conscience,  sir " 


128  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  VII. 

"  The  devil  take  it  and  thee  !  I  never  heard  a  man  yet  begin 
to  prate  of  his  conscience,  but  I  knew  that  he  was  about  to  do 
something  more  than  ordinarily  cruel  or  false." 

"  Sir,"  said  the  man,  coolly  enough,  "  do  you  sit  here  to 
judge  me  according  to  law,  and  yet  contrary  to  the  law  swear 
profane  oaths,  for  which  a  fine  is  provided?" 

Amyas  expected  an  explosion :  but  Sir  Richard  pulled  a 
shilling  out  and  put  it  on  the  table.  "  There — my  fine  is  paid, 
sirrah,  to  the  poor  of  Kilkhampton :  but  hearken  thou  all  the 
same.  If  thou  wilt  not  speak  an  oath,  thou  shalt  speak  on 
compulsion ;  for  to  Launceston  gaol  thou  goest,  there  to  answer 
for  Mr.  Oxenham's  death,  on  suspicion  whereof,  and  of  mutiny 
causing  it,  I  will  attach  thee  and  every  soul  of  his  crew  that 
comes  home.  We  have  lost  too  many  gallant  captains  of  late 
by  treachery  of  their  crews,  and  he  that  will  not  clear  himself 
on  oath,  must  be  held  for  guilty,  and  self-condemned." 

"  My  good  fellow,"  said  Amyas,  who  could  not  give  up  his 
belief  in  the  man's  honesty ;  "  why,  for  such  fantastical  scruples, 
peril  not  only  your  life,  but  your  honour,  and  Mr.  Oxenham's 
also  1  For  if  you  be  examined  by  question,  you  may  be  forced 
by  torment  to  say  that  which  is  not  true." 

"  Little  fear  of  that,  young  sir  !"  answered  he  with  a  grim 
smile;  "I  have  had  too  much  of  the  rack  already,  and  the 
strappado  too,  to  care  much  what  man  can  do  unto  me.  I  would 
heartily  that  I  thought  it  lawful  to  be  sworn  :  but  not  so  think- 
ing, I  can  but  submit  to  the  cruelty  of  man;  though  I  did 
expect  more  merciful  things,  as  a  most  miserable  and  wrecked 
mariner,  at  the  hands  of  one  who  hath  himself  seen  God's  ways 
in  the  sea,  and  His  wonders  in  the  great  deep.  Sir  Richard 
Grenvile,  if  you  will  hear  my  story,  may  God  avenge  on  my 
head  all  my  sins  from  my  youth  up  until  now,  and  cut  me  off 
from  the  blood  of  Christ,  and,  if  it  were  possible,  from  the 
number  of  His  elect,  if  I  tell  you  one  whit  more  or  less  than 
truth ;  and  if  not,  I  commend  myself  into  the  hands  of  God." 

Sir  Richard  smiled.  "Well,  thou  art  a  brave  ass,  and  valiant, 
though  an  ass  manifest.  Dost  thou  not  see,  fellow,  how  thou 
hast  sworn  a  ten-times  bigger  oath  than  ever  I  should  have  asked 
of  thee  ?  But  this  is  the  way  with  your  Anabaptists,  who  by 
their  very  hatred  of  forms  and  ceremonies,  show  of  how  much 
account  they  think  them,  and  then  bind  themselves  out  of  their 
own  fantastical  self-will  with  far  heavier  burdens  than  ever  the 
lawful  authorities  have  laid  on  them  for  the  sake  of  the  common- 
weal. But  what  do  they  care  for  the  commonweal,  as  long  as 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  129 

they  can  save,  as  they  fancy,  each  man  his  own  dirty  soul  for 
himself1?  However,  thou  art  sworn  now  with  a  vengeance;  go 
on  with  thy  tale  :  and  first,  who  art  thou,  and  whence1?" 

"  Well,  sir,"  said  the  man,  quite  unmoved  by  this  last  ex- 
plosion ;  "  my  name  is  Salvation  Yeo,  born  in  Clovelly  Street, 
in  the  year  1526,  where  my  father  exercised  the  mystery  of  a 
barber  surgeon,  and  a  preacher  of  the  people  since  called  Ana- 
baptists, for  which  I  return  humble  thanks  to  God." 

Sir  Richard. — Fie  !  thou  naughty  knave  ;  return  thanks 
that  thy  father  was  an  ass  1 

Yeo. — Nay,  but  because  he  was  a  barber  surgeon ;  for  I 
myself  learnt  a  touch  of  that  trade,  and  thereby  saved  my  life, 
as  I  will  tell  presently.  And  I  do  think  that  a  good  mariner 
ought  to  have  all  knowledge  of  carnal  and  worldly  cunning, 
even  to  tailoring  and  shoemaking,  that  he  may  be  able  to  turn 
his  hand  to  whatsoever  may  hap. 

Sir  Richard. — Well  spoken,  fellow  :  but  let  us  have  thy 
text  without  thy  comments.  Forwards  ! 

Yeo. — Well,  sir.  I  was  bred  to  the  sea  from  my  youth, 
and  was  with  Captain  Hawkins  in  his  three  voyages,  which  he 
made  to  Guinea  for  negro  slaves,  and  thence  to  the  West  Indies. 

Sir  Richard.  —  Then  thrice  thou  wentest  to  a  bad  end, 
though  Captain  Hawkins  be  my  good  friend ;  and  the  last  time 
to  a  bad  end  thou  earnest. 

Yeo. — No  denying  that  last,  your  worship  :  but  as  for  the 
former,  I  doubt : — about  the  unlawfulness  I  mean ;  being  the 
negroes  are  of  the  children  of  Ham,  who  are  cursed  and  repro- 
bate, as  Scripture  declares,  and  their  blackness  testifies,  being 
Satan's  own  livery ;  among  whom  therefore  there  can  be  none 
of  the  elect,  wherefore  the  elect  are  not  required  to  treat  them 
as  brethren. 

Sir  Richard. — What  a  plague  of  a  pragmatical  sea-lawyer 
have  we  here  1  And  I  doubt  not,  thou  hypocrite,  that  though 
thou  wilt  call  the  negroes'  black  skin  Satan's  livery,  when  it 
serves  thy  turn  to  steal  them,  thou  wilt  find  out  sables  to  be 
Heaven's  livery  every  Sunday,  and  up  with  a  godly  howl  unless 
a  parson  shall  preach  in  a  black  gown  Geneva  fashion.  Out 
upon  thee  !  Go  on  with  thy  tale,  lest  thou  finish  thy  sermon 
at  Launceston  after  all. 

Yeo. — The  Lord's  people  were  always  a  reviled  people  and 
a  persecuted  people  :  but  I  will  go  forward,  sir ;  for  Heaven  for- 
bid but  that  I  should  declare  what  God  has  done  for  me.  For 
till  lately,  from  my  youth  up,  I  was  given  over  to  all  wretchless- 

K 


130  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vu. 

ness  and  unclean  living,  and  was  by  nature  a  child  of  the  devil, 
and  to  every  good  work  reprobate,  even  as  others. 

Sir  Richard. — Hark  to  his  "  even  as  others  "  !  Thou  new- 
whelped  Pharisee,  canst  not  confess  thine  own  villainies  without 
milking  out  others  as  bad  as  thyself,  and  so  thyself  no  worse 
than  others  ?  I  only  hope  that  thou  hast  shown  none  of  thy 
devil's  doings  to  Mr.  Oxenham. 

Yeo. — On  the  word  of  a  Christian  man,  sir,  as  I  said  before, 
I  kept  true  faith  with  him,  and  would  have  been  a  better  friend 
to  him,  sir,  what  is  more,  than  ever  he  was  to  himself. 

Sir  Richard. — Alas  !  that  might  easily  be. 

Yeo. — I  think,  sir,  and  will  make  good  against  any  man, 
that  Mr.  Oxenham  was  a  noble  and  valiant  gentleman ;  true  of 
his  word,  stout  of  his  sword,  skilful  by  sea  and  land,  and  worthy 
to  have  been  Lord  High  Admiral  of  England  (saving  your 
worship's  presence),  but  that  through  two  great  sins,  wrath  and 
avarice,  he  was  cast  away  miserably  or  ever  his  soul  was  brought 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Ah,  sir,  he  was  a  captain  worth 
sailing  under  !  And  Yeo  heaved  a  deep  sigh. 

Sir  Richard. — Steady,  steady,  good  fellow !  If  thou  wouldst 
quit  preaching,  thou  art  no  fool  after  all.  But  tell  us  the  story 
without  more  bush-beating. 

So  at  last  Yeo  settled  himself  to  his  tale  : — 

"Well,  sirs,  I  went,  as  Mr.  Leigh  knows,  to  N  ombre  de 
Dios,  with  Mr.  Drake  and  Mr.  Oxenham,  in  1572,  where  what 
we  saw  and  did,  your  worship,  I  suppose,  knows  as  well  as  I ; 
and  there  was,  as  you've  heard  may  be,  a  covenant  between  Mr. 
Oxenham  and  Mr.  Drake  to  sail  the  South  Seas  together,  which 
they  made,  your  worship,  in  my  hearing,  under  the  tree  over 
Panama.  For  when  Mr.  Drake  came  down  from  the  tree,  after 
seeing  the  sea  afar  off,  Mr.  Oxenham  and  I  went  up  and  saw  it 
too ;  and  when  we  came  down,  Drake  says,  '  John,  I  have  made 
a  vow  to  God  that  I  will  sail  that  water,  if  I  live  and  God  gives 
me  grace ;'  which  he  had  done,  sir,  upon  his  bended  knees,  like 
a  godly  man  as  he  always  was,  and  would  I  had  taken  after  him! 
and  Mr.  0.  says,  '  I  am  with  you,  Drake,  to  live  or  die,  and  I 
think  I  know  some  one  there  already,  so  we  shall  not  be  quite 
among  strangers  ;'  and  laughed  withal.  Well,  sirs,  that  voyage, 
as  you  know,  never  came  off,  because  Captain  Drake  was  fight- 
ing in  Ireland ;  so  Mr.  Oxenham,  who  must  be  up  and  doing, 
sailed  for  himself,  and  I  who  loved  him,  God  knows,  like  a 
brother  (saving  the  difference  in  our  ranks),  helped  him  to  get 
the  crew  together,  and  went  as  his  gunner,  That  was  in  1575 ; 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXEN  HAM.  131 

as  you  know,  he  had  a  140-ton  ship,  sir,  and  seventy  men  out 
of  Plymouth  and  Fowey  and  Dartmouth,  and  many  of  them  old 
hands  of  Drake's,  beside  a  dozen  or  so  from  Bideford  that  I 
picked  up  when  I  saw  young  Master  here." 

"  Thank  God  that  you  did  not  pick  me  up  too." 

"Amen,  amen  !"  said  Yeo,  clasping  his  hands  on  his  breast. 
"  Those  seventy  men,  sir, — seventy  gallant  men,  sir,  with  every 
one  of  them  an  immortal  soul  within  him, — where  are  they  now  1 
Gone,  like  the  spray  !"  And  he  swept  his  hands  abroad  with  a 
wild  and  solemn  gesture.  "  And  their  blood  is  upon  my  head !" 

Both  Sir  Richard  and  Amyas  began  to  suspect  that  the 
man's  brain  was  not  altogether  sound. 

"  God  forbid,  my  man,"  said  the  knight  kindly. 

"  Thirteen  men  I  persuaded  to  join  in  Bideford  town,  beside 
William  Penberthy  of  Marazion,  my  good  comrade.  And  what 
if  it  be  said  to  me  at  the  day  of  judgment,'  Salvation  Yeo,  where 
are  those  fourteen  whom  thou  didst  tempt  to  their  deaths  by 
covetousness  and  lust  of  gold?'  Not  that  I  was  alone  in  my 
sin,  if  the  truth  must  be  told.  For  all  the  way  out  Mr.  Oxen- 
ham  was  making  loud  speech,  after  his  pleasant  way,  that  he 
would  make  all  their  fortunes,  and  take  them  to  such  a  Paradise, 
that  they  should  have  no  lust  to  come  home  again.  And  I — 
God  knows  why — for  every  one  boast  of  his  would  make  two, 
even  to  lying  and  empty  fables,  and  anything  to  keep  up  the 
men's  hearts.  For  I  had  really  persuaded  myself  that  we  should 
all  find  treasures  beyond  Solomon  his  temple,  and  Mr.  Oxenham 
would  surely  show  us  how  to  conquer  some  golden  city  or  dis- 
cover some  island  all  made  of  precious  stones.  And  one  day,  as 
the  Captain  and  I  were  talking  after  our  fashion,  I  said,  '  And 
you  shall  be  our  king,  Captain.'  To  which  he,  '  If  I  be,  I  shall 
not  be  long  without  a  queen,  and  that  no  Indian  one  either.' 
And  after  that  he  often  jested  about  the  Spanish  laddies,  saying 
that  none  could  show  us  the  way  to  their  hearts  better  than  he. 
Which  speeches  I  took  no  count  of  then,  sirs  :  but  after  I 
minded  them,  whether  I  would  or  not.  Well,  sirs,  we  came  to 
the  shore  of  New  Spain,  near  to  the  old  place — that's  Nombre 
de  Dios  ;  and  there  Mr.  Oxenham  went  ashore  into  the  woods 
with  a  boat's  crew,  to  find  the  negroes  who  helped  us  three  years 
before.  Those  are  the  Cimaroons,  gentles,  negro  slaves  who 
have  fled  from  those  devils  incarnate,  their  Spanish  masters,  and 
live  wild,  like  the  beasts  that  perish ;  men  of  great  stature,  sirs, 
and  fierce  as  wolves  in  the  onslaught,  but  poor  jabbering  mazed 
fellows  if  they  be  but  a,  bit  dismayed  :  and  have  many  Indian 


132  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP,  vn 

women  with  them,  who  take  to  these  negroes  a  deal  better 
than  to  their  own  kin,  which  breeds  war  enough,  as  you  may 
guess. 

"  Well,  sirs,  after  three  days  the  Captain  comes  back,  look- 
ing heavy  enough,  and  says,  'We  played  our  trick  once  too 
often,  when  we  played  it  once.  There  is  no  chance  of  stopping 
another  re$o  (that  is,  a  mule-train,  sirs)  now.  The  Cimaroons 
say  that  since  our  last  visit  they  never  move  without  plenty  of 
soldiers,  two  hundred  shot  at  least.  Therefore/  he  said,  'my 
gallants,  we  must  either  return  empty-handed  from  this,  the 
very  market  and  treasury  of  the  whole  Indies,  or  do  such  a  deed 
as  men  never  did  before,  which  I  shall  like  all  the  better  for 
that  very  reason.'  And  we,  asking  his  meaning,  'Why,'  he 
said,  'if  Drake  will  not  sail  the  South  Seas,  we  will;'  adding 
profanely  that  Drake  was  like  Moses,  who  beheld  the  promised 
land  afar ;  but  he  was  Joshua,  who  would  enter  into  it,  and 
smite  the  inhabitants  thereof.  And,  for  our  confirmation, 
showed  me  and  the  rest  the  superscription  of  a  letter :  and 
said,  '  How  I  came  by  this  is  none  of  your  business  :  but  I  have 
had  it  in  my  bosom  ever  since  I  left  Plymouth ;  and  I  tell  you 
now,  what  I  forebore  to  tell  you  at  first,  that  the  South  Seas 
have  been  my  mark  all  along !  such  news  have  I  herein  of 
plate-ships,  and  gold-ships,  and  what  not,  which  will  come  up 
from  Quito  and  Lima  this  very  month,  all  which,  with  the 
pearls  of  the  Gulf  of  Panama,  and  other  wealth  unspeakable, 
will  be  ours,  if  we  have  but  true  English  hearts  within  us.' 

"  At  which,  gentles,  we  were  like  madmen  for  lust  of  that 
gold,  and  cheerfully  undertook  a  toil  incredible ;  for  first  we 
run  our  ship  aground  in  a  great  wood  which  grew  in  the  very 
sea  itself,  and  then  took  out  her  masts,  and  covered  her  in 
boughs,  with  her  four  cast  pieces  of  great  ordnance  (of  which 
more  hereafter),  and  leaving  no  man  in  her,  started  for  the 
South  Seas  across  the  neck  of  Panama,  with  two  small  pieces 
of  ordnance  and  our  culverins,  and  good  store  of  victuals,  and 
with  us  six  of  those  negroes  for  a  guide,  and  so  twelve  leagues 
to  a  river  which  runs  into  the  South  Sea. 

"And  there,  having  cut  wood,  we  made  a  pinnace  (and 
work  enough  we  had  at  it)  of  five-and-forty  foot  in  the  keel ; 
and  in  her  down  the  stream,  and  to  the  Isle  of  Pearls  in  the 
Gulf  of  Panama." 

"Into  the  South  Sea?  Impossible!"  said  Sir  Richard. 
"  Have  a  care  what  you  say,  my  man  ;  for  there  is  that  about 
you  which  would  make  me  sorry  to  find  you  out  a  liar." 


.  vil.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  133 

"  Impossible  or  not,  liar  or  none,  we  went  there,  sir." 

"Question  him,  Amyas,  lest  he  turn  out  to  have  been 
beforehand  with  you." 

The  man  looked  inquiringly  at  Amyas,  who  said — 

"  Well,  my  man,  of  the  Gulf  of  Panama  I  cannot  ask  you, 
for  I  never  was  inside  it,  but  what  other  parts  of  the  coast  do 
you  know  V 

"  Every  inch,  sir,  from  Cabo  San  Francisco  to  Lima ;  more 
is  iny  sorrow,  for  I  was  a  galley-slave  there  for  two  years  and 
more." 

"You  know  Lima?" 

"  I  was  there  three  times,  worshipful  gentlemen,  and  the 
last  was  February  come  two  years ;  and  there  I  helped  lade  a 
great  plate-ship,  the  'Cacafuogo,'  they  called  her." 

Amyas  started.  Sir  Richard  nodded  to  him  gently  to  be 
silent,  and  then — 

"  And  what  became  of  her,  my  lad  ?" 

"  God  knows,  who  knows  all,  and  the  devil  who  freighted 
her.  I  broke  prison  six  weeks  afterwards,  and  never  heard 
but  that  she  got  safe  into  Panama." 

"  You  never  heard,  then,  that  she  was  taken  ?" 

"  Taken,  your  worships  ?     Who  should  take  her  1" 

"  Why  should  not  a  good  English  ship  take  her  as  well  as 
another?"  said  Amyas. 

"  Lord  love  you,  sir ;  yes  faith,  if  they  had  but  been  there. 
Manj^s  the  time  that  I  thought  to  myself,  as  we  went  along- 
side, '  Oh,  if  Captain  Drake  was  but  here,  well  to  windward, 
and  our  old  crew  of  the  Dragon  !'  Ask  your  pardon,  gentles  : 
but  how  is  Captain  Drake,  if  I  may  make  so  bold  ?" 

Neither  could  hold  out  longer. 

"Fellow,  fellow  !"  cried  Sir  Richard,  springing  up,  "either 
thou  art  the  cunningest  liar  that  ever  earned  a  halter,  or  thou 
hast  done  a  deed  the  like  of  which  never  man  adventured. 
Dost  thou  not  know  that  Captain  Drake  took  that '  Cacafuogo ' 
and  all  her  freight,  in  February  come  two  years?" 

"Captain  Drake!  God  forgive  me,  sir;  but — Captain 
Drake  in  the  South  Seas  ?  He  saw  them,  sir,  from  the  tree- 
top  over  Panama,  when  I  was  with  him,  and  I  too ;  but  sailed 
them,  sir  ? — sailed  them  ?" 

"  Yes,  and  round  the  world  too,"  said  Amyas,  "  and  I  with 
him ;  and  took  that  very  '  Cacafuogo '  off  Cape  San  Francisco, 
as  she  came  up  to  Panama." 

One  glance  at  the  man's  face  was  enough  to  prove  his  sin- 


134  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CIIAI-.  vn. 

cerity.  The  great  stern  Anabaptist,  who  had  not  winced  at 
the  news  of  his  mother's  death,  dropt  right  on  his  knees  on  the 
floor,  and  burst  into  violent  sobs. 

"  Glory  to  God  !  Glory  to  God  !  0  Lord,  I  thank  thee  ! 
Captain  Drake  in  the  South  Seas  !  The  blood  of  thy  innocents 
avenged,  0  Lord  !  The  spoiler  spoiled,  and  the  proud  robbed ; 
ami  all  they  whose  hands  were  mighty  have  found  nothing. 
Glory,  glory  !  Oh,  tell  me,  sir,  did  she  fight  1" 

"  We  gave  her  three  pieces  of  ordnance  only,  and  struck 
down  her  mizen  mast,  and  then  boarded  sword  in  hand,  but 
never  had  need  to  strike  a  blow ;  and  before  we  left  her,  one 
of  her  own  boys  had  changed  her  name,  and  rechristened  her 
the  'Cacaplata.'" 

"  Glory,  glory  !  Cowards  they  are,  as  I  told  them.  I  told 
them  they  never  could  stand  the  Devon  mastiffs,  and  well  they 
flogged  me  for  saying  it ;  but  they  could  not  stop  my  mouth. 
0  sir,  tell  me,  did  you  get  the  ship  that  came  up  after  her?" 

"  What  was  that  V 

"  A  long  race-ship,  sir,  from  Guayaquil,  with  an  old  gentle- 
man on  board, — Don  Francisco  de  Xararte  was  his  name,  and 
by  token,  he  had  a  gold  falcon  hanging  to  a  chain  round  his 
neck,  and  a  green  stone  in  the  breast  of  it.  I  saw  it  as  we 
rowed  him  aboard.  0  tell  me,  sir,  tell  me  for  the  love  of  God, 
did  you  take  that  ship  1" 

"  We  did  take  that  ship,  and  the  jewel  too,  and  her  Majesty 
has  it  at  this  very  hour." 

"Then  tell  me,  sir,"  said  he  slowly,  as  if  he  dreaded  an 
answer ;  "  tell  me,  sir,  and  oh,  try  and  mind — was  there  a  little 
maid  aboard  with  the  old  gentleman  1" 

"  A  little  maid  1     Let  me  think.     No ;  I  saw  none." 

The  man  settled  his  features  again  sadly. 

"  I  thought  not.  I  never  saw  her  come  aboard.  Still  I 
hoped,  like ;  I  hoped.  Alackaday  !  God  help  me,  Salvation 
Yeo !" 

"What  have  you  to  do  with  this  little  maid,  then,  good 
fellow  !"  asked  Grenvile. 

"  Ah,  sir,  before  I  tell  you  that,  I  must  go  back  and  finish 
the  story  of  Mr.  Oxenham,  if  you  will  believe  me  enough  to 
hear  it." 

"  I  dp  believe  thee,  good  fellow,  and  honour  thee  too." 

"  Then,  sir,  I  can  speak  with  a  free  tongue.     Where  was  I?" 

"  Where  was  he,  Amyas." 

"  At  the  Isle  of  Pearls." 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  135 

"  And  yet,  0  gentles,  tell  me  first,  how  Captain  Drake  came 
into  the  South  Seas : — over  the  neck,  as  we  did?" 

"  Through  the  Straits,  good  fellow,  like  any  Spaniard :  Init 
go  on  with  thy  story,  and  thou  shalt  have  Mr.  Leigh's  after." 

"  Through  the  Straits  !  0  glory  !  But  I'll  tell  my  tale. 
Well,  sirs  both — To  the  Island  of  Pearls  we  came,  we  and  some 
of  the  negroes.  We  found  many  huts,  and  Indians  fishing  for 
pearls,  and  also  a  fair  house,  with  porches ;  but  no  Spaniard 
therein,  save  one  man ;  at  which  Mr.  Oxenham  was  like  a  man 
transported,  and  fell  on  that  Spaniard,  crying,  '  Perro,  where  is 
your  mistress  ?  Where  is  the  bark  from  Lima1?'  To  which  he 
boldly  enough,  'What  was  his  mistress  to  the  Englishman1?' 
But  Mr.  0.  threatened  to  twine  a  cord  round  his  head  till  his 
eyes  burst  out ;  and  the  Spaniard,  being  terrified,  said  that  the 
ship  from  Lima  was  expected  in  a  fortnight's  time.  So  for  ten 
days  we  lay  quiet,  letting  neither  negro  nor  Spaniard  leave  the 
island,  and  took  good  store  of  pearls,  feeding  sumptuously  on 
wild  cattle  and  hogs  until  the  tenth  day,  when  there  came  by 
a  small  bark ;  her  we  took,  and  found  her  from  Quito,  and  on 
board  60,000  pezos  of  gold  and  other  store.  With  which  if 
we  had  been  content,  gentlemen,  all  had  gone  well.  And  some 
were  willing  to  go  back  at  once,  having  both  treasure  and  pearls 
in  plenty ;  but  Mr.  0.,  he  waxed  right  mad,  and  swore  to  slay 
any  one  who  made  that  motion  again,  assuring  us  that  the  Lima 
ship  of  which  he  had  news  was  far  greater  and  richer,  and  would 
make  princes  of  us  all ;  which  bark  came  in  sight  on  the  six- 
teenth day,  and  was  taken  without  shot  or  slaughter.  The  taking 
of  which  bark,  I  verily  believe,  was  the  ruin  of  every  mother's 
son  of  us." 

And  being  asked  why,  he  answered,  "  First,  because  of  the 
discontent  which  was  bred  thereby ;  for  on  board  was  found  no 
gold,  but  only  100,000  pezos  of  silver." 

Sir  Richard  Grenvile. — Thou  greedy  fellow ;  and  was  not 
that  enough  to  stay  your  stomachs  1 

Yeo  answered  that  he  would  to  God  it  had  been ;  and  that, 
moreover,  the  weight  of  that  silver  was  afterwards  a  hindrance 
to  them,  and  a  fresh  cause  of  discontent,  as  he  would  afterwards 
declare.  "  So  that  it  had  been  well  for  us,  sirs,  if  we  had  left 
it  behind,  as  Mr.  Drake  left  his  three  years  before,  and  carried 
away  the  gold  only.  In  which  I  do  see  the  evident  hand  of 
God,  and  His  just  punishment  for  our  greediness  of  gain ;  who 
caused  Mr.  Oxenham,  by  whom  we  had  hoped  to  attain  great 
wealth,  to  be  a  snare  to  us,  and  a  cause  of  utter  ruin." 


136  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

"  Do  you  think,  then,"  said  Sir  Richard,  "  that  Mr.  Oxen- 
ham  deceived  you  wilfully?" 

"  I  will  never  believe  that  sir  :  Mr.  Oxenham  had  his 
private  reasons  for  waiting  for  that  ship,  for  the  sake  of  one  on 
board,  whose  face  would  that  he  had  never  seen,  though  he  saw 
it  then,  as  I  fear,  not  for  the  first  time  by  many  a  one."  And 
so  was  silent. 

"  Come,"  said  both  his  hearers,  "  you  have  brought  us  thus 
far,  and  you  must  go  on." 

"Gentlemen,  I  have  concealed  this  matter  from  all  men, 
both  on  my  voyage  home  and  since ;  and  I  hope  you  will  be 
secret  in  the  matter,  for  the  honour  of  my  noble  Captain,  and 
the  comfort  of  his  friends  who  are  alive.  For  I  think  it  shame 
to  publish  harm  of  a  gallant  gentleman,  and  of  an  ancient  and 
worshipful  family,  and  to  me  a  true  and  kind  Captain,  when 
what  is  done  cannot  be  undone,  and  least  said  soonest  mended. 
Neither  now  would  I  have  spoken  of  it,  but  that  I  was  inwardly 
moved  to  it  for  the  sake  of  that  young  gentleman  there  (looking 
at  Amyas),  that  he  might  be  warned  in  time  of  God's  wrath 
against  the  crying  sin  of  adultery,  and  flee  youthful  lusts,  which 
war  against  the  soul." 

"  Thou  hast  done  wisely  enough,  then,"  said  Sir  Richard  ; 
"  and  look  to  it  if  I  do  not  reward  thee  :  but  the  young  gentle- 
man here,  thank  God,  needs  no  such  warnings,  having  got  them 
already  both  by  precept  and  example,  where  thou  and  poor 
Oxenham  might  have  had  them  also." 

"  You  mean  Captain  Drake,  your  worship  1" 

"I  do,  sirrah.  If  all  men  were  as  clean  livers  as  he,  the 
world  would  be  spared  one  half  the  tears  that  are  shed  in  it." 

"  Amen,  sir.  At  least  there  would  have  been  many  a  tear 
spared  to  us  and  ours.  For — as  all  must  out — in  that  bark  of 
Lima  he  took  a  young  lady,  as  fair  as  the  sunshine,  sir,  and 
seemingly  about  two  or  three-and-twenty  years  of  age,  having 
with  her  a  tall  young  lad  of  sixteen,  and  a  little  girl,  a  marvel- 
lously pretty  child,  of  about  a  six  or  seven.  And  the  lady  herself 
was  of  an  excellent  beauty,  like  a  whale's  tooth  for  whiteness, 
so  that  all  the  crew  wondered  at  her,  and  could  not  be  satisfied 
with  looking  upon  her.  And,  gentlemen,  this  was  strange,  that 
the  lady  seemed  in  no  wise  afraid  or  mournful,  and  bid  her  little 
girl  fear  nought,  as  did  also  Mr.  Oxenham  :  but  the  lad  kept  a 
very  sour  countenance,  and  the  more  when  he  saw  the  lady  and 
Mr.  Oxenham  speaking  together  apart. 

"  Well,  sir,  after  this  good  luck  we  were  minded  to  have 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  137 

gone  straight  back  to  the  river  whence  we  came,  and  so  home 
to  England  with  all  speed.  But  Mr.  Oxenham  persuaded  us 
to  return  to  the  island,  and  get  a  few  more  pearls.  To  which 
foolishness  (which  after  caused  the  mishap)  I  verily  believe  he 
was  moved  by  the  instigation  of  the  devil  and  of  that  lady.  For 
as  we  were  about  to  go  ashore,  I,  going  down  into  the  cabin  of 
the  prize,  saw  Mr.  Oxenham  and  that  lady  making  great  cheer 
of  each  other  with,  '  My  life,'  and  '  My  king,'  and  '  Light  of  my 
eyes,'  and  such  toys ;  and  being  bidden  by  Mr.  Oxenbam  to  fetch 
out  the  lady's  mails,  and  take  them  ashore,  heard  how  the  two 
laughed  together  about  the  old  ape  of  Panama  (which  ape,  or 
devil  rather,  I  saw  afterwards  to  my  cost),  and  also  how  she 
said  that  she  had  been  dead  for  five  years,  and  now  that  Mr. 
Oxenham  was  come,  she  was  alive  again,  and  so  forth. 

"Mr.  Oxenham  bade  take  the  little  maid  ashore,  kissing 
her  and  playing  with  her,  and  saying  to  the  lady,  '  What  is 
yours  is  mine,  and  what  is  mine  is  yours.'  And  she  asking 
whether  the  lad  should  come  ashore,  he  answered,  '  He  is  neither 
yours  nor  mine ;  let  the  spawn  of  Beelzebub  stay  on  shore.' 
After  which  I,  coming  on  deck  again,  stumbled  over  that  very 
lad,  upon  the  hatchway  ladder,  who  bore  so  black  and  despite- 
ful a  face,  that  I  verily  believe  he  had  overheard  their  speech, 
and  so  thrust  him  upon  deck ;  and  going  below  again,  told  Mr. 
Oxenham  what  I  thought,  and  said  that  it  were  better  to  put 
a  dagger  into  him  at  once,  professing  to  be  ready  so  to  do. 
For  which  grievous  sin,  seeing  that  it  was  committed  in  my 
unregenerate  days,  I  hope  I  have  obtained  the  grace  of  forgive- 
ness, as  I  have  that  of  hearty  repentance.  But  the  lady  cried 
out,  '  Though  he  be  none  of  mine,  I  have  sin  enough  already  on 
my  soul ;'  and  so  laid  her  hand  on  Mr.  Oxenham's  mouth,  en- 
treating pitifully.  And  Mr.  Oxenham  answered  laughing,  when 
she  would  let  him,  '  What  care  we  ?  let  the  young  monkey  go 
and  howl  to  the  old  one ;'  and  so  went  ashore  with  the  lady  to 
that  house,  whence  for  three  days  he  never  came  forth,  and 
would  have  remained  longer,  but  that  the  men,  finding  but  few 
pearls,  and  being  wearied  with  the  watching  and  warding  so 
many  Spaniards,  and  negroes  came  clamouring  to  him,  and 
swore  that  they  would  return  or  leave  him  there  with  the 
lady.  So  all  went  on  board  the  pinnace  again,  every  one  in  ill 
humour  with  the  Captain,  and  he  with  them. 

"  Well,  sirs,  we  came  back  to  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and 
there  began  our  troubles ;  for  the  negroes,  as  soon  as  we  were 
on  shore,  called  on  Mr.  Oxenham  to  fulfil  the  bargain  he  had 


138  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  VII. 

made  with  them.  And  now  it  came  out  (what  few  of  us  knew 
till  then)  that  he  had  agreed  with  the  Cimaroons  that  they 
should  have  all  the  prisoners  which  were  taken,  save  the  gold. 
And  he,  though  loth,  was  about  to  give  up  the  Spaniards  to 
them,  near  forty  in  all,  supposing  that  they  intended  to  use 
them  as  slaves :  but  as  we  all  stood  talking,  one  of  the  Spaniards, 
understanding  what  was  forward,  threw  himself  on  his  knees 
before  Mr.  Oxenham,  and  shrieking  like  a  madman,  entreated 
not  to  be  given  up  into  the  hands  of  '  those  devils,'  said  he, 
'  who  never  take  a  Spanish  prisoner,  but  they  roast  him  alive, 
and  then  eat  his  heart  among  them.'  We  asked  the  negroes  if 
this  was  possible  1  To  which  some  answered,  What  was  that 
to  us  1  But  others  said  boldly,  that  it  was  true  enough,  and 
that  revenge  made  the  best  sauce,  and  nothing  was  so  sweet  as 
Spanish  blood ;  and  one,  pointing  to  the  lady,  said  such  foul 
and  devilish  things  as  I  should  be  ashamed  either  for  me  to 
speak,  or  you  to  hear.  At  this  we  were  like  men  amazed  for 
very  horror ;  and  Mr.  Oxenham  said, '  You  incarnate  fiends,  if 
you  had  taken  these  fellows  for  slaves,  it  had  been  fair  enough ; 
for  you  were  once  slaves  to  them,  and  I  doubt  not  cruelly  used 
enough :  but  as  for  this  abomination,'  says  he,  '  God  do  so  to 
me,  and  more  also,  if  I  let  one  of  them  come  into  your  murder- 
ous hands.'  So  there  was  a  great  quarrel ;  but  Mr.  Oxenham 
stoutly  bade  put  the  prisoners  on  board  the  ships  again,  and  so 
let  the  prizes  go,  taking  with  him  only  the  treasure,  and  the 
lady  and  the  little  maid.  And  so  the  lad  went  on  to  Panama, 
God's  wrath  having  gone  out  against  us. 

"  Well,  sirs,  the  Cimaroons  after  that  went  away  from  us, 
swearing  revenge  (for  which  we  cared  little  enough),  and  we 
rowed  up  the  river  to  a  place  where  three  streams  met,  and 
then  up  the  least  of  the  three,  some  four  days'  journey,  till  it 
grew  all  shoal  and  swift ;  and  there  we  hauled  the  pinnace 
upon  the  sands,  and  Mr.  Oxenham  asked  the  men  whether  they 
were  willing  to  carry  the  gold  and  silver  over  the  mountains  to 
the  North  Sea.  Some  of  them  at  first  were  loth  to  do  it,  and 
I  and  others  advised  that  we  should  leave  the  plate  behind, 
and  take  the  gold  only,  for  it  would  have  cost  us  three  or  four 
journeys  at  the  least.  But  Mr.  Oxenham  promised  every  man 
100  pezos  of  silver  over  and  above  his  wages,  which  made  them 
content  enough,  and  we  were  all  to  start  the  morrow  morning. 
But,  sirs,  that  night,  as  God  had  ordained,  came  a  mishap  by 
some  rash  speeches  of  Mr.  Oxenham's,  which  threw  all  abroad 
again ;  for  when  we  had  carried  the  treasure  about  half  a  league 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  139 

inland,  and  hidden  it  away  in  a  house  which  we  made  of  boughs, 
Mr.  0.  being  always  full  of  that  his  fair  lady,  spoke  to  me  and 
William  Penberthy  of  Marazion,  my  good  comrade,  and  a  few 
more,  saying,  '  That  we  had  no  need  to  return  to  England,  see- 
ing that  we  were  already  in  the  very  garden  of  Eden,  and 
wanted  for  nothing,  but  could  live  without  labour  or  toil ;  and 
that  it  was  better,  when  we  got  over  to  the  North  Sea,  to  go 
and  seek  out  some  fair  island,  and  there  dwell  in  joy  and  plea- 
sure till  our  lives'  end.  And  we  two,'  he  said,  '  will  be  king 
and  queen,  and  you,  whom  I  can  trust,  my  officers ;  and  for 
servants  we  will  have  the  Indians,  who,  I  warrant,  will  be  more 
fain  to  serve  honest  and  merry  masters  like  us  than  those 
Spanish  devils,'  and  much  more  of  the  like ;  which  words  I 
liked  well, — my  mind,  alas !  being  given  altogether  to  carnal 
pleasure  and  vanity, — as  did  William  Penberthy,  my  good 
comrade,  on  whom  I  trust  God  has  had  mercy.  But  the  rest, 
sirs,  took  the  matter  all  across,  and  began  murmuring  against 
the  Captain,  saying  that  poor  honest  mariners  like  them  had 
always  the  labour  and  the  pain,  while  he  took  his  delight  with 
his  lady ;  and  that  they  would  have  at  least  one  merry  night 
before  they  were  slain  by  the  Cimaroons,  or  eaten  by  panthers 
and  lagartos ;  and  so  got  out  of  the  pinnace  two  great  skins  of 
Canary  wine,  which  were  taken  in  the  Lima  prize,  and  sat 
themselves  down  to  drink.  Moreover,  there  were  in  the  pin- 
nace a  great  sight  of  hens,  which  came  from  the  same  prize,  by 
which  Mr.  0.  set  great  store,  keeping  them  for  the  lady  and 
the  little  maid;  and  falling  upon  these,  the  men  began  to 
blaspheme,  saying,  '  What  a  plague  had  the  Captain  to  fill  the 
boat  with  dirty  live  lumber  for  that  giglet's  sake  1  They  had 
a  better  right  to  a  good  supper  than  ever  she  had,  and  might 
fast  awhile  to  cool  her  hot  blood ;'  and  so  cooked  and  ate  those 
hens,  plucking  them  on  board  the  pinnace,  and  letting  the 
feathers  fall  into  the  stream.  But  when  William  Penberthy, 
my  good  comrade,  saw  the  feathers  floating  away  down,  he 
asked  them  if  they  were  mad,  to  lay  a  trail  by  which  the 
Spaniards  would  surely  track  them  out,  if  they  came  after 
them,  as  without  doubt  they  would.  But  they  laughed  him  to 
scorn,  and  said  that  no  Spanish  cur  dared  follow  on  the  heels 
of  true  English  mastiffs  as  they  were,  and  other  boastful 
speeches ;  and  at  last,  being  heated  with  wine,  began  afresh  to 
murmur  at  the  Captain.  And  one  speaking  of  his  counsel  about 
the  island,  the  rest  altogether  took  it  amiss  and  out  of  the  way ; 
and  some  sprang  up  crying  treason,  and  others  that  he  meant 


140  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

to  defraud  them  of  the  plate  which  he  had  promised,  and  others 
that  he  meant  to  desert  them  in  a  strange  land,  and  so  forth, 
till  Mr.  0.,  hearing  the  hubbub,  came  out  to  them  from  the 
house,  when  they  reviled  him  foully,  swearing  that  he  meant 
to  cheat  them ;  and  one  Edward  Stiles,  a  Wapping  man,  mad 
with  drink,  dared  to  say  that  he  was  a  fool  for  not  giving  up 
the  prisoners  to  the  negroes,  and  what  was  it  to  him  if  the  lady 
roasted?  the  negroes  should  have  her  yet;  and  drawing  his 
sword,  ran  upon  the  Captain  :  for  which  I  was  about  to  strike 
him  through  the  body ;  but  the  Captain,  not  caring  to  waste 
steel  on  such  a  ribald,  with  his  fist  caught  him  such  a  buffet 
behind  the  ear,  that  he  fell  down  stark  dead,  and  all  the  rest 
stood  amazed.  Then  Mr.  Oxenham  called  out,  'All  honest 
men  who  know  me,  and  can  trust  me,  stand  by  your  lawful 
Captain  against  these  ruffians.'  Whereon,  sirs,  I,  and  Penberthy 
my  good  comrade,  and  four  Plymouth  men,  who  had  sailed  with 
Mr.  0.  in  Mr.  Drake's  ship,  and  knew  his  trusty  and  valiant 
conditions,  came  over  to  him,  and  swore  before  God  to  stand  by 
him  and  the  lady.  Then  said  Mr.  0.  to  the  rest,  '  Will  you 
carry  this  treasure,  knaves,  or  will  you  not  ?  Give  me  an 
answer  here.'  And  they  refused,  unless  he  would,  before  they 
started,  give  each  man  his  share.  So  Mr.  0.  waxed  very  mad, 
and  swore  that  he  would  never  be  served  by  men  who  did  not 
trust  him,  and  so  went  in  again ;  and  that  night  was  spent  in 
great  disquiet,  I  and  those  five  others  keeping  watch  about  the 
house  of  boughs  till  the  rest  fell  asleep,  in  their  drink.  And 
next  morning,  when  the  wine  was  gone  out  of  them,  Mr.  0. 
asked  them  whether  they  would  go  to  the  hills  with  him,  and 
find  those  negroes,  and  persuade  them  after  all  to  carry  the 
treasure.  To  which  they  agreed  after  awhile,  thinking  that  so 
they  should  save  themselves  labour;  and  went  off  with  Mr. 
Oxenham,  leaving  us  six  who  had  stood  by  him  to  watch  the 
lady  and  the  treasure,  after  he  had  taken  an  oath  of  us  that  we 
would  deal  justly  and  obediently  by.  him  and  by  her,  which 
God  knows,  gentlemen,  we  did.  So  he  parted  with  much 
weeping  and  wailing  of  the  lady,  and  was  gone  seven  days; 
and  all  that  time  we  kept  that  lady  faithfully  and  honestly, 
bringing  her  the  best  we  could  find,  and  serving  her  upon  our 
bended  knees,  both  for  her  admirable  beauty,  and  for  her  excel- 
lent conditions,  for  she  was  certainly  of  some  noble  kin,  and 
courteous,  and  without  fear,  as  if  she  had  been  a  very  princess. 
But  she  kept  always  within  the  house,  which  the  little  maid 
(God  bless  her  !)  did  not,  but  soon  learned  to  play  with  us  and 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  141 

we  with  her,  so  that  we  made  great  cheer  of  her,  gentlemen, 
sailor  fashion — for  you  know  we  must  always  have  our  minions 
aboard  to  pet  and  amuse  us — maybe  a  monkey,  or  a  little  dog, 
or  a  singing  bird,  ay,  or  mice  and  spiders,  if  we  have  nothing 
better  to  play  withal.  And  she  was  wonderful  sharp,  sirs,  was 
the  little  maid,  and  picked  up  her  English  from  us  fast,  calling 
us  jolly  mariners,  which  I  doubt  but  she  has  forgotten  by  now, 
but  I  hope  in  God  it  be  not  so ;"  and  therewith  the  good  fellow 
began  wiping  his  eyes. 

"  Well,  sir,  on  the  seventh  day  we  six  were  down  by  the 
pinnace  clearing  her  out,  and  the  little  maid  with  us  gathering 
of  flowers,  and  William  Penberthy  fishing  on  the  bank,  about  a 
hundred  yards  below,  when  on  a  sudden  he  leaps  up  and  runs 
toward  us,  crying,  '  Here  come  our  hens'  feathers  back  again 
with  a  vengeance  !'  and  so  bade  catch  up  the  little  maid,  and 
run  for  the  house,  for  the  Spaniards  were  upon  us. 

"  Which  was  too  true  ;  for  before  we  could  win  the 
house,  there  were  full  eighty  shot  at  our  heels,  but  could  not 
overtake  us ;  nevertheless,  some  of  them  stopping,  fixed  their 
calivers  and  let  fly,  killing  one  of  the  Plymouth  men.  The  rest 
of  us  escaped  to  the  house,  and  catching  up  the  lady,  fled  forth, 
not  knowing  whither  we  went,  while  the  Spaniards,  finding  the 
house  and  treasure,  pursued  us  no  farther. 

"For  all  that  day  and  the  next  we  wandered  in  great 
misery,  the  lady  weeping  continually,  and  calling  for  Mr. 
Oxenham  most  piteously,  and  the  little  maid  likewise,  till 
with  much  ado  we  found  the  track  of  our  comrades,  and  went 
up  that  as  best  we  might :  but  at  nightfall,  by  good  hap,  we 
met  the  whole  crew  coming  back,  and  with  them  200  negroes 
or  more,  with  bows  and  arrows.  At  which  sight  was  great  joy 
and  embracing,  and  it  was  a  strange  thing,  sirs,  to  see  the  lady ; 
for  before  that  she  was  altogether  desperate  :  and  yet  she  was 
now  a  very  lioness,  as  soon  as  she  had  got  her  love  again  ;  and 
prayed  him  earnestly  not  to  care  for  that  gold,  but  to  go  for- 
ward to  the  North  Sea,  vowing  to  him  in  my  hearing  that  she 
cared  no  more  for  poverty  than  she  had  cared  for  her  good 
name,  and  then — they  being  a  little  apart  from  the  rest — 
pointed  round  to  the  green  forest,  and  said  in  Spanish — which 
I  suppose  they  knew  not  that  I  understood, — '  See,  all  rouncl 
us  is  Paradise.  Were  it  not  enough  for  you  and  me  to  stay 
here  for  ever,  and  let  them  take  the  gold  or  leave  it  as  they 
witt?' 

"  To  which  Mr.  Oxenham — '  Those  who  lived  in  Paradise 


142  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

had  not  sinned  as  we  have,  and  would  never  have  grown  old  or 
sick,  as  we  shall' 

"  And  she — '  If  we  do  that,  there  are  poisons  enough  in 
these  woods,  by  which  we  may  die  in  each  other's  arms,  as 
would  to  Heaven  we  had  died  seven  years  agone  !' 

"  But  he — '  No,  no,  my  life.  It  stands  upon  my  honour 
both  to  fulfil  my  bond  with  these  men,  whom  I  have  brought 
hither,  and  to  take  home  to  England  at  least  something  of  my 
prize  as  a  proof  of  my  own  valour.' 

"Then  she  smiling — 'Am  I  not  prize  enough,  and  proof 
enough  V  But  he  would  not  be  so  tempted,  and  turning  to  us 
offered  us  the  half  of  that  treasure,  if  we  would  go  back  with 
him,  and  rescue  it  from  the  Spaniard.  At  which  the  lady  wept 
and  wailed  much ;  but  I  took  upon  myself  to  comfort  her, 
though  I  was  but  a  simple  mariner,  telling  her  that  it  stood 
upon  Mr.  Oxenham's  honour ;  and  that  in  England  nothing 
was  esteemed  so  foul  as  cowardice,  or  breaking  word  and  troth 
betwixt  man  and  man  ;  and  that  better  was  it  for  him  to  die 
seven  times  by  the  Spaniards,  than  to  face  at  home  the  scorn 
of  all  who  sailed  the  seas.  So,  after  much  ado,  back  they  went 
again ;  I  and  Penberthy,  and  the  three  Plymouth  men  which 
escaped  from  the  pinnace,  keeping  the  lady  as  before. 

"  Well,  sirs,  we  waited  five  days,  having  made  houses  of 
boughs  as  before,  without  hearing  aught ;  and  on  the  sixth  we 
saw  coming  afar  off  Mr.  Oxenham,  and  with  him  fifteen  or 
twenty  men,  who  seemed  very  weary  and  wounded ;  and  when 
we  looked  for  the  rest  to  be  behind  them,  behold  there  were 
no  more ;  at  which,  sirs,  as  you  may  well  think,  our  hearts 
sank  within  us. 

"And  Mr.  0.,  coming  nearer,  cried  out  afar  off,  'All  is 
lost !'  and  so  walked  into  the  camp  without  a  word,  and  sat 
himself  down  at  the  foot  of  a  great  tree  with  his  head  between 
his  hands,  speaking  neither  to  the  lady  or  to  any  one,  till  she 
very  pitifully  kneeling  before  him,  cursing  herself  for  the  cause 
of  all  his  mischief,  and  praying  him  to  avenge  himself  upon 
that  her  tender  body,  won  him  hardly  to  look  once  upon  her, 
after  which  (as  is  the  way  of  vain  and  unstable  man)  all  between 
them  was  as  before. 

"  But  the  men  were  full  of  curses  against  the  negroes,  for 
their  cowardice  and  treachery ;  yea,  and  against  high  Heaven 
itself,  which  had  put  the  most  part  of  their  ammunition  into 
the  Spaniards'  hands  ;  and  told  me,  and  I  believe  truly,  how 
they  forced  the  enemy  awaiting  them  in  a  little  copse  of  great 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  143 

trees,  well  fortified  with  barricades  of  boughs,  and  having  with 
them  our  two  falcons,  which  they  had  taken  out  of  the  pinnace. 
And  how  Mr.  Oxenham  divided  both  the  English  and  the 
negroes  into  two  bands,  that  one  might  attack  the  enemy  in 
front,  and  the  other  in  the  rear,  and  so  set  upon  them  with 
great  fury,  and  would  have  utterly  driven  them  out,  but  that 
the  negroes,  who  had  come  on  with  much  howling,  like  very 
wild  beasts,  being  suddenly  scared  with  the  shot  and  noise  of 
the  ordnance,  turned  and  fled,  leaving  the  Englishmen  alone ; 
in  which  evil  strait  Mr.  0.  fought  like  a  very  Guy  of  Warwick, 
and  I  verily  believe  every  man  of  them  likewise ;  for  there  was 
none  of  them  who  had  not  his  shrewd  scratch  to  show.  And 
indeed,  Mr.  Oxenham's  party  had  once  gotten  within  the  barri- 
cades, but  the  Spaniards  being  sheltered  by  the  tree  trunks 
(and  especially  by  one  mighty  tree,  which  stood  as  I  remem- 
bered it,  and  remember  it  now,  borne  up  two  fathoms  high 
upon  its  own  roots,  as  it  were  upon  arches  and  pillars),  shot  at 
them  with  such  advantage,  that  they  had  several  slain,  and 
seven  more  taken  alive,  only  among  the  roots  of  that  tree.  So 
seeing  that  they  could  prevail  nothing,  having  little  but  their 
pikes  and  swords,  they  were  fain  to  give  back ;  though  Mr. 
Oxenham  swore  he  would  not  stir  a  foot,  and  making  at  the 
Spanish  Captain  was  borne  down  with  pikes,  and  hardly  pulled 
away  by  some,  who  at  last  reminding  him  of  his  lady,  persuaded 
him  to  come  away  with  the  rest.  Whereon  the  other  party  fled 
also ;  but  what  had  become  of  them  they  knew  not,  for  they 
took  another  way.  And  so  they  miserably  drew  off,  having 
lost  in  men  eleven  killed  and  seven  taken  alive,  besides  five  of 
the  rascal  negroes  who  were  killed  before  they  had  time  to  run  ; 
and  there  was  an  end  of  the  matter.1 

1  In  the  documents  from  which  I  have  drawn  this  veracious  history, 
a  note  is  appended  to  this  point  of  Yeo's  story,  which  seems  to  me  to 
smack  sufficiently  of  the  old  Elizabethan  seaman,  to  be  inserted  at  length. 

' '  All  so  far,  and  most  after,  agreeth  with  Lopez  Vaz  his  tale,  taken 
from  his  pocket  by  my  Lord  Cumberland's  mariners  at  the  river  Plate,  in 
the  year  1586.  But  note  here  his  vainglory  and  falsehood,  or  else  fear  of 
the  Spaniard. 

"  First,  lest  it  should  be  seen  how  great  an  advantage  the  Spaniards 
had,  lie  maketh  no  mention  of  the  English  calivers,  nor  those  two  pieces 
of  ordnance  which  were  in  the  pinnace. 

"  Second,  he  saith  nothing  of  the  flight  of  the  Cimaroons  :  though  it 
was  evidently  to  be  gathered  from  that  which  he  himself  saith,  that  of  less 
than  seventy  English  were  slain  eleven,  and  of  the  negroes  but  five.  And 
while  of  the  English  seven  were  taken  alive,  yet  of  the  negroes  none.  And 
why,  but  because  the  rascals  ran  ? 

"Thirdly,  it  is  a  thing  incredible,  and  out  of  experience,  that  eleven 


144  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

"But  the  next  day,  gentlemen,  in  came  some  five-and- 
twenty  more,  being  the  wreck  of  the  other  party,  and  with  them 
a  few  negroes ;  and  these  last  proved  themselves  no  honester 
men  than  they  were  brave,  for  there  being  great  misery  among 
us  English,  and  every  one  of  us  straggling  where  he  could  to 
get  food,  every  day  one  or  more  who  went  out  never  came  back, 
and  that  caused  a  suspicion  that  the  negroes  had  betrayed  them 
to  the  Spaniards,  or  may  be,  slain  and  eaten  them.  So  these 
fellows  being  upbraided,  with  that  altogether  left  us,  telling  us 
boldly,  that  if  they  had  eaten  our  fellows,  we  owed  them  a  debt 
instead  of  the  Spanish  prisoners ;  and  we,  in  great  terror  and 
hunger,  went  forward  and  over  the  mountains  till  we  came  to 
a  little  river  which  ran  northward,  which  seemed  to  lead  into 
the  Northern  Sea;  and  there  Mr.  0. — who,  sirs,  I  will  say, 
after  his  first  rage  was  over,  behaved  himself  all  through  like 
a  valiant  and  skilful  commander — bade  us  cut  down  trees  and 
make  canoes,  to  go  down  to  the  sea ;  which  we  began  to  do 

English  should  be  slain  and  seven  taken,  with  loss  only  of  two  Spaniards 
killed. 

"  Search  now,  and  see  (for  I  will  not  speak  of  mine  own  small  doings), 
in  all  those  memorable  voyages,  which  the  worthy  and  learned  Mr.  Hak- 
luyt  hath  so  painfully  collected,  and  which  are  to  my  old  age  next  only  to 
my  Bible,  whether  in  all  the  fights  which  we  have  endured  with  the 
Spaniards,  their  loss,  even  in  victory,  hath  not  far  exceeded  ours.  For  we 
are  both  bigger  of  body  and  fiercer  of  spirit,  being  even  to  the  poorest  of 
us  (thanks  to  the  care  of  our  illustrious  princes),  the  best  fed  men  of 
Europe,  the  most  trained  to  feats  of  strength  and  use  of  weapons,  and  put 
our  trust  also  not  in  any  Virgin  or  saints,  dead  rags  and  bones,  painted 
idols  which  have  no  breath,  in  their  mouths,  or  St.  Bartholomew  medals 
and  such  devil's  remembrancers  :  but  in  the  only  true  God  and  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  whosoever  trusteth,  one  of  them  shall  chase  a  thou- 
sand. So  I  hold,  having  had  good  experience  ;  and  say,  if  they  have  done 
it  once,  let  them  do  it  again,  and  kill  their  eleven  to  our  two,  with  any 
weapon  they  will,  save  paper  bullets  blown  out  of  Fame's  lying  trumpet. 
Yet  I  have  no  quarrel  with  the  poor  Portugal ;  for  I  doubt  not  but  friend 
Lopez  Vaz  had  looking  over  his  shoulder  as  he  wrote  some  mighty  black 
velvet  Don,  with  a  name  as  long  as  that  Don  Bernaldino  Delgadillo  de 
Avellaneda  who  set  forth  lately  his  vainglorious  libel  of  lies  concerning  the 
last  and  fatal  voyage  of  my  dear  friends  Sir  F.  Drake  and  Sir  John  Hawkins, 
who  rest  in  peace,  having  finished  their  labours,  as  would  God  I  rested. 
To  whose  shameless  and  unspeakable  lying  my  good  friend  Mr.  Henry 
Savile  of  this  county  did  most  pithily  and  wittily  reply,  stripping  the  ass 
out  of  his  lion's  skin ;  and  Sir  Thomas  Baskerville,  general  of  the  fleet, 
by  my  advice,  send  him  a  cartel  of  defiance,  offering  to  meet  him  with 
choice  of  weapons,  in  any  indifferent  kingdom  of  equal  distance  from  this 
realm  ;  which  challenge  he  hath  prudently  put  in  his  pipe,  or  rather  rolled 
it  up  for  one  of  his  Spanish  cigarros,  and  smoked  it,  and  I  doubt  not,  found 
it  foul  in  the  mouth. " 


CIIAl*.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  145 

with  great  labour  and  little  profit,  hewing  down  trees  with  our 
swords,  and  burning  them  out  with  fire,  which,  after  much 
labour,  we  kindled ;  but  as  we  were  a-burning  out  of  the  first 
tree,  and  cutting  down  of  another,  a  great  party  of  negroes  came 
upon  us,  and  with  much  friendly  show  bade  us  flee  for  our  lives, 
for  the  Spaniards  were  upon  us  in  great  force.  And  so  we  were 
up  and  away  again,  hardly  able  to  drag  our  legs  after  us  for 
hunger  and  weariness,  and  the  broiling  heat.  And  some  were 
taken  (God  help  them  !)  and  some  fled  with  the  negroes,  of 
whom  what  became  God  alone  knoweth;  but  eight  or  ten  held  on 
with  the  Captain,  among  whom  was  I,  and  fled  downward  toward 
the  sea  for  one  day ;  but  afterwards  finding,  by  the  noise  in  the 
woods,  that  the  Spaniards  were  on  the  track  of  us,  we  turned 
up  again  toward  the  inland,  and  coming  to  a  cliff,  climbed  up 
over  it,  drawing  up  the  lady  and  the  little  maid  with  cords  of 
liana  (which  hang  from  those  trees  as  honeysuckle  does  here, 
but  exceeding  stout  and  long,  even  to  fifty  fathoms);  and  so 
breaking  the  track,  hoped  to  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  enemy. 

"  By  which,  nevertheless,  we  only  increased  our  misery. 
For  two  fell  from  that  cliff,  as  men  asleep  for  very  weariness, 
and  miserably  broke  their  bones ;  and  others,  whether  by  the 
great  toil,  or  sunstrokes,  or  eating  of  strange  berries,  fell  sick 
of  fluxes  and  fevers ;  where  was  no  drop  of  water,  but  rock  of 
pumice  stone  as  bare  as  the  back  of  my  hand,  and  full,  more- 
over, of  great  cracks,  black  and  without  bottom,  over  which  we 
had  not  strength  to  lift  the  sick,  but  were  fain  to  leave  them 
there  aloft,  in  the  sunshine,  like  Dives  in  his  torments,  crying 
aloud  for  a  drop  of  water  to  cool  their  tongues  ;  and  every  man 
a  great  stinking  vulture  or  two  sitting  by  him,  like  an  ugly 
black  fiend  out  of  the  pit,  waiting  till  the  poor  soul  should 
depart  out  of  the  corpse  :  but  nothing  could  avail,  and  for  the 
dear  life  we  must  down  again  and  into  the  woods,  or  be  burned 
up  alive  upon  those  rocks. 

"  So  getting  down  the  slope  on  the  farther  side,  we  came 
into  the  woods  once  more,  and  there  wandered  for  many  days, 
I  know  not  how  many ;  our  shoes  being  gone,  and  our  clothes 
all  rent  off  us  with  brakes  and  briars.  And  yet  how  the  lady 
endured  all  was  a  marvel  to  see ;  for  she  went  barefoot  many 
days,  and  for  clothes  was  fain  to  wrap  herself  in  Mr.  Oxenham's 
cloak  ;  while  the  little  maid  went  all  but  naked  :  but  ever  she 
looked  still  on  Mr.  Oxenham,  and  seemed  to  take  no  care  as 
long  as  he  was  by,  comforting  and  cheering  us  all  with  pleasant 
words ;  yea,  and  once  sitting  down  under  a  great  fig-tree,  sang 

L 


146  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

us  all  to  sleep  with  very  sweet  music ;  yet,  waking  about  mid- 
night, I  saw  her  sitting  still  upright,  weeping  very  bitterly ; 
on  whom,  sirs,  God  have  mercy ;  for  she  was  a  fair  and  a  brave 
jewel. 

"  And  so,  to  make  few  words  of  a  sad  matter,  at  last  there 
were  none  left  but  Mr.  Oxenham  and  the  lady  and  the  little 
maid,  together  with  me  and  William  Penberthy  of  Marazion, 
my  good  comrade.  And  Mr.  Oxenham  always  led  the  lady,  and 
Penberthy  and  I  carried  the  little  maid.  And  for  food  we  had 
fruits,  such  as  we  could  find,  and  water  we  got  from  the  leaves 
of  certain  lilies  which  grew  on  the  bark  of  trees,  which  I  found 
by  seeing  the  monkeys  drink  at  them ;  and  the  little  maid 
called  them  monkey-cups,  and  asked  for  them  continually,  mak- 
ing me  climb  for  them.  And  so  we  wandered  on,  and  upward 
into  very  high  mountains,  always  fearing  lest  the  Spaniards 
should  track  us  with  dogs,  which  made  the  lady  leap  up  often 
in  her  sleep,  crying  that  the  bloodhounds  were  upon  her.  And 
it  befell  upon  a  day,  that  we  came  into  a  great  wood  of  ferns 
(which  grew  not  on  the  ground  like  ours,  but  on  stems  as  big 
as  a  pinnace's  mast,  and  the  bark  of  them  was  like  a  fine  meshed 
net,  very  strange  to  see),  where  was  very  pleasant  shade,  cool 
and  green  ;  and  there,  gentlemen,  we  sat  down  on  a  bank  of 
moss,  like  folk  desperate  and  foredone,  and  every  one  looked 
the  other  in  the  face  for  a  long  while.  After  which  I  took  off 
the  bark  of  those  ferns,  for  I  must  needs  be  doing  something 
to  drive  away  thought,  and  began  to  plait  slippers  for  the  little 
maid. 

"  And  as  I  was  plaiting,  Mr.  Oxenham  said,  '  What  hinders 
us  from  dying  like  men,  every  man  falling  on  his  own  sword  1' 
To  which  I  answered  that  I  dare  not ;  for  a  wise  woman  had 
prophesied  of  me,  sirs,  that  I  should  die  at  sea,  and  yet  neither 
by  water  or  battle,  wherefore  I  did  not  think  right  to  meddle 
with  the  Lord's  purposes.  And  William  Penberthy  said,  '  That 
he  would  sell  his  life,  and  that  dear,  but  never  give  it  away.' 
But  the  lady  said,  '  Ah,  how  gladly  would  I  die  !  but  then  la 
paouvre  garse,'  which  is  in  French  '  the  poor  maid,'  meaning 
the  little  one.  Then  Mr.  Oxeuham  fell  into  a  very  great  weep- 
ing, a  weakness  I  never  saw  him  in  before  or  since ;  and  with 
many  tears  besought  me  never  to  desert  that  little  maid,  what- 
ever might  befall ;  which  I  promised,  swearing  to  it  like  a 
heathen,  but  would,  if  I  had  been  able,  have  kept  it  like  a 
Christian.  But  on  a  sudden  there  was  a  great  cry  in  the  wood, 
and  coming  through  the  trees  on  all  sides  Spanish  arquebusiers, 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  147 

a  hundred  strong  at  least,  and  negroes  with  them,  who  bade  us 
stand  or  they  would  shoot.  William  Penberthy  leapt  up,  cry- 
ing, 'Treason!'  and  running  upon  the  nearest  negro  ran  him 
through,  and  then  another,  and  then  falling  on  the  Spaniards, 
fought  manfully  till  he  was  borne  down  with  pikes,  and  so  died. 
But  I,  seeing  nothing  better  to  do,  sate  still  and  finished  my 
plaiting.  And  so  we  were  all  taken,  and  I  and  Mr.  Oxenham 
bound  with  cords ;  but  the  soldiers  made  a  litter  for  the  lady 
and  child,  by  commandment  of  Senor  Diego  de  Trees,  their 
commander,  a  very  courteous  gentleman. 

"  Well,  sirs,  we  were  brought  down  to  the  place  where  the 
house  of  boughs  had  been  by  the  river-side ;  there  we  went 
over  in  boats,  and  found  waiting  for  us  certain  Spanish  gentle- 
men, and  among  others  one  old  and  ill-favoured  man,  grey- 
bearded  and  bent,  in  a  suit  of  black  velvet,  who  seemed  to  be 
a  great  man  among  them.  And  if  you  will  believe  me,  Mr. 
Leigh,  that  was  none  other  than  the  old  man  with  the  gold 
falcon  at  his  breast,  Don  Francisco  Xararte  by  name,  whom 
you  found  aboard  of  the  Lima  ship.  And  had  you  known  as 
much  of  him  as  I  do,  or  as  Mr.  Oxenham  did  either,  you  had 
cut  him  up  for  shark's  bait,  or  ever  you  let  the  cur  ashore 
again. 

"Well,  sirs,  as  soon  as  the  lady  came  to  shore,  that  old 
man  ran  upon  her  sword  in  hand,  and  would  have  slain  her, 
but  some  there  held  him  back.  On  which  he  turned  to,  and 
reviled  with  every  foul  and  spiteful  word  which  he  could  think 
of,  so  that  some  there  bade  him  be  silent  for  shame ;  and  Mr. 
Oxenham  said,  '  It  is  worthy  of  you,  Don  Francisco,  thus  to 
trumpet  abroad  your  own  disgrace.  Did  I  not  tell  you  years 
ago  that  you  were  a  cur ;  and  are  you  not  proving  my  words 
for  me  ?' 

"  He  answered, '  English  dog,  would  to  Heaven  I  had  never 
seen  you !' 

"  And  Mr.  Oxenham,  'Spanish  ape,  would  to  Heaven  that  I 
had  sent  my  dagger  through  your  herring-ribs  when  you  passed 
me  behind  St.  Ildegonde's  church,  eight  years  last  Easter-eve.' 
At  which  the  old  man  turned  pale,  and  then  began  again  to 
upbraid  the  lady,  vowing  that  he  would  have  her  burnt  alive, 
and  other  devilish  words,  to  which  she  answered  at  last — 

" '  Would  that  you  had  burnt  me  alive  on  my  wedding 
morning,  and  spared  me  eight  years  of  misery  ! '  And  he — 

" '  Misery  ?  Hear  the  witch,  Senors !  Oh,  have  I  not 
pampered  her,  heaped  with  jewels,  clothes,  coaches,  what  not  ? 


148  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vil. 

The  saints  alone  know  what  I  have  spent  on  her.  What  more 
would  she  have  of  me  V 

"  To  which  she  answered  only  but  this  one  word,  '  Fool !' 
but  in  so  terrible  a  voice,  though  low,  that  they  who  were  about 
to  laugh  at  the  old  pantaloon,  were  more  minded  to  weep  for 
her. 

"  '  Fool !'  she  said  again,  after  a  while,  '  I  will  waste  no 
words  upon  you.  I  would  have  driven  a  dagger  to  your  heart 
months  ago,  but  that  I  was  loth  to  set  you  free  so  soon  from 
your  gout  and  your  rheumatism.  Selfish  and  stupid,  know 
when  you  bought  my  body  from  my  parents,  you  did  not  buy 
my  soul !  Farewell,  my  love,  my  life  !  and  farewell,  Senqrs ! 
May  you  be  more  merciful  to  your  daughters  than  my  parents 
were  to  me  ! '  And  so,  catching  a  dagger  from  the  girdle  of  one 
of  the  soldiers,  smote  herself  to  the  heart,  and  fell  dead  before 
them  all. 

"At  which  Mr.  Oxenham  smiled,  and  said,  'That  was 
worthy  of  us  both.  If  you  will  unbind  my  hands,  Senors,  I 
shall  be  most  happy  to  copy  so  fair  a  schoolmistress.' 

"  But  Don  Diego  shook  his  head,  and  said, 

"'It  were  well  for  you,  valiant  Senor,  were  I  at  liberty  to 
do  so ;  but  on  questioning  those  of  your  sailors,  whom  I  have 
already  taken,  I  cannot  hear  that  you  have  any  letters  of  licence, 
either  from  the  Queen  of  England,  or  any  other  potentate.  I 
am  compelled,  therefore,  to  ask  you,  whether  this  is  so ;  for  it 
is  a  matter  of  life  and  death.' 

"  To  which  Mr.  Oxenham  answered  merrily,  '  That  so  it 
was :  but  that  he  was  not  aware  that  any  potentate's  licence 
was  required  to  permit  a  gentleman's  meeting  his  lady  love ; 
and  that  as  for  the  gold  which  they  had  taken,  if  they  had 
never  allowed  that  fresh  and  fair  young  May  to  be  forced  into 
marrying  that  old  January,  he  should  never  have  meddled  with 
their  gold ;  so  that  was  rather  their  fault  than  his.'  And 
added,  that  if  he  was  to  be  hanged,  as  he  supposed,  the  only 
favour  which  he  asked  for  was  a  long  drop  and  no  priests. 
And  all  the  while,  gentlemen,  he  still  kept  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
lady's  corpse,  till  he  was  led  away  with  me,  while  all  that  stood 
by,  God  reward  them  for  it,  lamented  openly  the  tragical  end 
of  those  two  sinful  lovers. 

"  And  now,  sirs,  what  befell  me  after  that  matters  little ; 
for  I  never  saw  Captain  Oxeuham  again,  nor  ever  shall  in  this 
life." 

"  He  was  hanged,  then?" 


CHAP,  vii.]  OF  MR,   JOHN  OXENHAM.  149 

"  So  I  heard  for  certain  the  next  year,  and  with  him  the 
gunner  and  sundry  more :  but  some  were  given  away  for  slaves 
to  the  Spaniards,  and  may  be  alive  now,  unless,  like  me,  they 
have  fallen  into  the  cruel  clutches  of  the  Inquisition.  For  the 
Inquisition  now,  gentlemen,  claims  the  bodies  and  souls  of  all 
heretics  all  over  the  world  (as  the  devils  told  me  with  their 
own  lips,  when  I  pleaded  that  I  was  no  Spanish  subject) ;  and 
none  that  it  catches,  whether  peaceable  merchants,  or  ship- 
wrecked mariners,  but  must  turn  or  burn." 

"  But  how  did  you  get  into  the  Inquisition  ?" 
"  Why,  sir,  after  we  were  taken,  we  set  forth  to  go  down 
the  river  again ;  and  the  old  Don  took  the  little  maid  with  him 
in  one  boat  (and  bitterly  she  screeched  at  parting  from  us,  and 
from  the  poor  dead  corpse),  and  Mr.  Oxenham  with  Don  Diego 
de  Trees  in  another,  and  I  in  a  third.  And  from  the  Spaniards 
I  learnt  that  we  were  to  be  taken  down  to  Lima,  to  the  Viceroy ; 
but  that  the  old  man  lived  hard  by  Panama,  and  was  going 
straight  back  to  Panama  forthwith  with  the  little  maid.  But 
they  said,  '  It  will  be  well  for  her  if  she  ever  gets  there,  for 
the  old  man  swears  she  is  none  of  his,  and  would  have  left  her 
behind  him  in  the  woods,  now,  if  Don  Diego  had  not  shamed 
him  out  of  it.'  And  when  I  heard  that,  seeing  that  there  was 
nothing  but  death  before  me,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  escape ; 
and  the  very  first  night,  sirs,  by  God's  help,  I  did  it,  and  went 
southward  away  into  the  forest,  avoiding  the  tracks  of  the 
Cimaroons,  till  I  came  to  an  Indian  town.  And  there,  gentle- 
men, I  got  more  mercy  from  heathens  than  ever  I  had  from 
Christians ;  for  when  they  found  that  I  was  no  Spaniard,  they 
fed  me  and  gave  me  a  house,  and  a  wife  (and  a  good  wife  she 
was  to  me),  and  painted  me  all  over  in  patterns,  as  you  see ; 
and  because  I  had  some  knowledge  of  surgery  and  blood-letting, 
and  my  fleams  in  my  pocket,  which  were  worth  to  me  a  fortune, 
I  rose  to  great  honour  among  them,  though  they  taught  me 
more  of  simples  than  ever  I  taught  them  of  surgery.  So  I 
lived  with  them  merrily  enough,  being  a  very  heathen  like 
them,  or  indeed  worse,  for  they  worshipped  their  Xemes,  but 
I  nothing.  And  in  time  my  wife  bare  me  a  child ;  in  looking 
at  whose  sweet  face,  gentlemen,  I  forgot  Mr.  Oxenham  and  his 
little  maid,  and  my  oath,  ay,  and  my  native  land  also.  Where- 
fore it  was  taken  from  me,  else  had  I  lived  and  died  as  the 
beasts  which  perish  ;  for  one  night,  after  we  were  all  lain  down, 
came  a  noise  outside  the  town,  and  I  starting  up  saw  armed 
men  and  calivers  shining  in  the  moonlight,  and  heard  one  read 


150  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

in  Spanish,  with  a  loud  voice,  some  fool's  sermon,  after  their 
custom  when  they  hunt  the  poor  Indians,  how  God  had  given 
to  St.  Peter  the  dominion  of  the  whole  earth,  and  St.  Peter 
again  the  Indies  to  the  Catholic  king ;  wherefore,  if  they  would 
all  be  baptized  and  serve  the  Spaniard,  they  should  have  some 
monkey's  allowance  or  other  of  more  kicks  than  pence  ;  and  if 
not,  then  have  at  them  with  fire  and  sword ;  but  I  dare  say 
your  worships  know  that  devilish  trick  of  theirs  better  than  I." 

"  I  know  it,  man.     Go  on." 

"  Well — no  sooner  were  the  words  spoken  than,  without 
waiting  to  hear  what  the  poor  innocents  within  would  answer 
(though  that  mattered  little,  for  they  understood  not  one  word 
of  it),  what  do  the  villains  but  let  fly  right  into  the  town  with 
their  calivers,  and  then  rush  in,  aword  in  hand,  killing  pell-mell 
all  they  met,  one  of  which  shots,  gentlemen,  passing  through  the 
doorway,  and  close  by  me,  struck  my  poor  wife  to  the  heart, 
that  she  never  spoke  word  more.  I,  catching  up  the  babe  from 
her  breast,  tried  to  run  :  but  when  I  saw  the  town  full  of  them, 
and  their  dogs  with,  them  in  leashes,  which  was  yet  worse,  I 
knew  all  was  lost,  and  sat  down  again  by  the  corpse  with  the 
babe  on  my  knees,  waiting  the  end,  like  one  stunned  and  in  a 
dream ;  for  now  I  thought  God  from  whom  I  had  fled  had  surely 
found  me  out,  as  He  did  Jonah,  and  the  punishment  of  all  my 
sins  was  come.  Well,  gentlemen,  they  dragged  me  out,  and  all 
the  young  men  and  women,  and  chained  us  together  by  the 
neck ;  and  one,  catching  the  pretty  babe  out  of  my  arms,  calls 
for  water  and  a  priest  (for  they  had  their  shavelings  with  them), 
and  no  sooner  was  it  christened  than,  catching  the  babe  by  the 
heels,  he  dashed  out  its  brains, — oh  !  gentlemen,  gentlemen  ! — 
against  the  ground,  as  if  it  had  been  a  kitten  ;  and  so  did  they 
to  several  more  innocents  that  night,  after  they  had  christened 
them ;  saying  it  was  best  for  them  to  go  to  heaven  while  they 
were  still  sure  thereof ;  and  so  marched  us  all  for  slaves,  leaving 
the  old  folk  and  the  wounded  to  die  at. leisure.  But  when  morn- 
ing came,  and  they  knew  by  my  skin  that  I  was  no  Indian,  and 
by  my  speech  that  I  was  no  Spaniard,  they  began  threatening 
me  with  torments,  till  I  confessed  that  I  was  an  Englishman, 
and  one  of  Oxenham's  crew.  At  that  says  the  leader,  '  Then 
you  shall  to  Lima,  to  hang  by  the  side  of  your  Captain  the 
pirate ;  by  which  I  first  knew  that  my  poor  Captain  was  cer- 
tainly gone ;  but  alas  for  me  !  the  priest  steps  in  and  claims  me 
for  his  booty,  calling  me  Lutheran,  heretic,  and  enemy  of  God ; 
and  so,  to  make  short  a  sad  story,  to  the  Inquisition  at  Cartha- 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  151 

gena  I  went,  where  what  I  suffered,  gentlemen,  were  as  disgust- 
ful for  you  to  hear,  as  unmanly  for  me  to  complain  of;  but  so 
it  was,  that  being  twice  racked,  and  having  endured  the  water- 
torment  as  best  I  could,  I  was  put  to  the  scarpines,  whereof  I 
am,  as  you  see,  somewhat  lame  of  one  leg  to  this  day.  At  which 
I  could  abide  no  more,  and  so,  wretch  that  I  am !  denied  ray  God, 
in  hope  to  save  my  life ;  which  indeed  I  did,  but  little  it  profited 
me ;  for  though  I  had  turned  to  their  superstition,  I  must  have 
two  hundred  stripes  in  the  public  place,  and  then  go  to  the 
galleys  for  seven  years.  And  there,  gentlemen,  ofttimes  I 
thought  that  it  had  been  better  for  me  to  have  been  burned  at 
once  and  for  all :  but  you  know  as  well  as  I  what  a  floating  hell 
of  heat  and  cold,  hunger  and  thirst,  stripes  and  toil,  is  every 
one  of  those  accursed  craft.  In  which  hell,  nevertheless,  gentle- 
men, I  found  the  road  to  heaven, — I  had  almost  said  heaven 
itself.  For  it  fell  out,  by  God's  mercy,  that  my  next  comrade 
was  an  Englishman  like  myself,  a  young  man  of  Bristol,  who, 
as  he  told  me,  had  been  some  manner  of  factor  on  board  poor 
Captain  Barker's  ship,  and  had  been  a  preacher  among  the  Ana- 
baptists here  in  England.  And,  oh  !  Sir  Richard  Grenvile,  if 
that  man  had  done  for  you  what  he  did  for  me,  you  would  never 
say  a  word  against  those  who  serve  the  same  Lord,  because  they 
don't  altogether  hold  with  you.  For  from  time  to  time,  sir, 
seeing  me  altogether  despairing  and  furious,  like  a  wild  beast  in 
a  pit,  he  set  before  me  in  secret  earnestly  the  sweet  promises  of 
God  in  Christ, — who  says,  '  Come  to  me,  all  ye  that  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  refresh  you ;  and  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet, 
they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow,' — till  all  that  past  sinful  life  of 
mine  looked  like  a  dream  when  one  awaketh,  and  I  forgot  all 
my  bodily  miseries  in  the  misery  of  my  soul,  so  did  I  loathe  and 
hate  myself  for  my  rebellion  against  that  loving  God  who  had 
chosen  me  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and  come  to  seek 
and  save  me  when  I  was  lost ;  and  falling  into  very  despair  at  the 
burden  of  my  heinous  sins,  knew  no  peace  until  I  gained  sweet 
assurance  that  my  Lord  had  hanged  my  burden  upon  His  cross, 
and  washed  my  sinful  soul  in  His  most  sinless  blood,  Amen  !" 

And  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  said  Amen  also. 

"  But,  gentlemen,  if  that  sweet  youth  won  a  soul  to  Christ, 
he  paid  as  dearly  for  it  as  ever  did  saint  of  God.  For  after  a 
three  or  four  months,  when  I  had  been  all  that  while  in  sweet 
converse  with  him,  and  I  may  say  in  heaven  in  the  midst  of 
hell,  there  came  one  night  to  the  barranco  at  Lima,  where  we 
were  kept  when  on  shore,  three  black  devils  of  the  Holy  Office, 


1 52  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [cHAr.  vrr. 

and  carried  him  off  without  a  word,  only  saying  to  me,  '  Look 
that  your  turn  come  not  next,  for  we  hear  that  you  have  had 
much  talk  with  the  villain.'  And  at  these  words  I  was  so  struck 
cold  with  terror  that  I  swooned  right  away,  and  verily,  if  they 
had  taken  me  there  and  then,  I  should  have  denied  my  God 
again,  for  my  faith  was  but  young  and  weak  :  but  instead,  they 
left  me  aboard  the  galley  for  a  few  months  more  (that  was  a 
whole  voyage  to  Panama  and  back),  in  daily  dread  lest  I  should 
find  myself  in  their  cruel  claws  again — and  then  nothing  for  me, 
but  to  burn  as  a  relapsed  heretic.  But  when  we  came  back  to 
Lima,  the  officers  came  on  board  again,  and  said  to  me,  '  That 
heretic  has  confessed  nought  against  you,  so  we  will  leave  you 
for  this  time  :  but  because  you  have  been  seen  talking  with  him 
so  much,  and  the  Holy  Office  suspects  your  conversion  to  be  but 
a  rotten  one,  you  are  adjudged  to  the  galleys  for  the  rest  of  your 
life  in  perpetual  servitude.'" 

"  But  what  became  of  him  1"  asked  Amyas. 

"  He  was  burned,  sir,  a  day  or  two  before  we  got  to  Lima, 
and  five  others  with  him  at  the  same  stake,  of  whom  two  were 
Englishmen ;  old  comrades  of  mine,  as  I  guess." 

"  Ah  !"  said  Amyas,  "we  heard  of  that  when  we  were  off 
Lima ;  and  they  said,  too,  that  there  were  six  more  lying  still 
in  prison,  to  be  burnt  in  a  few  days.  If  we  had  had  our  fleet 
with  us  (as  we  should  have  had  if  it  had  not  been  for  John 
Winter)  we  would  have  gone  in  and  rescued  them  all,  poor 
wretches,  and  sacked  the  town  to  boot :  but  what  could  we  do 
with  one  ship  1" 

"Would  to  God  you  had,  sir;  for  the  story  was  true  enough; 
and  among  them,  I  heard,  were  two  young  ladies  of  quality  and 
their  confessor,  who  came  to  their  ends  for  reproving  out  of 
Scripture  the  filthy  and  loathsome  living  of  those  parts,  which, 
as  I  saw  well  enough  and  too  well,  is  liker  to  Sodom  than  to  a 
Christian  town ;  but  God  will  avenge  His  saints,  and  their  sins. 
Amen." 

"  Amen,"  said  Sir  Richard  :  "  but  on  with  thy  tale,  for  it 
is  as  strange  as  ever  man  heard." 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  when  I  heard  that  I  must  end  my  days 
in  that  galley,  I  was  for  awhile  like  a  madman :  but  in  a  clay 
or  two  there  came  over  me,  I  know  not  how,  a  full  assurance 
of  salvation,  both  for  this  life  and  the  life  to  come,  such  as  I 
had  never  had  before ;  and  it  was  revealed  to  me  (I  speak  the 
truth,  gentlemen,  before  Heaven)  that  now  I  had  been  tried  to 
the  uttermost,  and  that  my  deliverance  was  at  hand. 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.  JOHN  OXENHAM.  1 53 

"  And  all  the  way  up  to  Panama  (that  was  after  we  had 
laden  the  '  Cacafuogo ')  I  cast  in  ray  mind  how  to  escape,  and 
found  no  way  :  but  just  as  I  was  beginning  to  lose  heart  again, 
a  door  was  opened  by  the  Lord's  own  hand ;  for  (I  know  not 
why)  we  were  marched  across  from  Panama  to  Nombre,  which 
had  never  happened  before,  and  there  put  all  together  into  a 
great  barranco  close  by  the  quay -side,  shackled,  as  is  the  fashion, 
to  one  long  bar  that  ran  the  whole  length  of  the  house.  And 
the  very  first  night  that  we  were  there,  I,  looking  out  of  the 
window,  spied,  lying  close  aboard  of  the  quay,  a  good -sized 
caravel  well  armed  and  just  loading  for  sea;  and  the  land  breeze 
blew  off  very  strong,  so  that  the  sailors  were  laying  out  a  fresh 
warp  to  hold  her  to  the  shore.  And  it  came  into  my  mind, 
that  if  we  were  aboard  of  her,  we  should  be  at  sea  in  five 
minutes ;  and  looking  at  the  quay,  I  saw  all  the  soldiers  who 
had  guarded  us  scattered  about  drinking  and  gambling,  and 
some  going  into  taverns  to  refresh  themselves  after  their  journey. 
That  was  just  at  sundown ;  and  half  an  hour  after,  in  comes 
the  gaoler  to  take  a  last  look  at  us  for  the  night,  and  his  keys 
at  his  girdle.  Whereon,  sirs  (whether  by  madness,  or  whether 
by  the  spirit  which  gave  Samson  strength  to  rend  the  lion),  I 
rose  against  him  as  he  passed  me,  without  forethought  or 
treachery  of  any  kind,  chained  though  I  was,  caught  him  by 
the  head,  and  threw  him  there  and  then  against  the  wall,  that 
he  never  spoke  word  after;  and  then  with  his  keys  freed  myself 
and  every  soul  in  that  room,  and  bid  them  follow  me,  vowing 
to  kill  any  man  who  disobeyed  my  commands.  They  followed, 
as  men  astounded  and  leaping  out  of  night  into  day,  and  death 
into  life,  and  so  aboard  that  caravel  and  out  of  the  harbour  (the 
Lord  only  knows  how,  who  blinded  the  eyes  of  the  idolaters), 
with  no  more  hurt  than  a  few  chance-shot  from  the  soldiers  on 
the  quay.  But  my  tale  has  been  over -long  already,  gentle- 
men— 

"  Go  on  till  midnight,  my  good  fellow,  if  you  will." 
"Well,  sirs,  they  chose  me  for  captain,  and  a  certain  Genoese 
for  lieutenant,  and  away  to  go.  I  would  fain  have  gone  ashore 
after  all,  and  back  to  Panama  to  hear  news  of  the  little  maid  : 
but  that  would  have  been  but  a  fool's  errand.  Some  wanted 
to  turn  pirates :  but  I,  and  the  Genoese  too,  who  was  a  prudent 
man,  though  an  evil  one,  persuaded  them  to  run  for  England 
and  get  employment  in  the  Netherland  wars,  assuring  them  that 
there  would  be  no  safety  in  the  Spanish  Main,  when  once  our 
escape  got  wind.  And  the  more  part  being  of  one  mind,  for 


154  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vn. 

England  we  sailed,  watering  at  the  Barbadoes  because  it  was 
desolate;  and  so  eastward  toward  the  Canaries.  In  which 
voyage  what  we  endured  (being  taken  by  long  calms),  by  scurvy, 
calentures,  hunger,  and  thirst,  no  tongue  can  tell.  Many  a 
time  were  we  glad  to  lay  out  sheets  at  night  to  catch  the 
dew,  and  suck  them  in  the  morning ;  and  he  that  had  a  noggin 
of  rain-water  out  of  the  scuppers  was  as  much  sought  to  as  if 
he  had  been  Adelantado  of  all  the  Indies  ;  till  of  a  hundred  and 
forty  poor  wretches  a  hundred  and  ten  were  dead,  blaspheming 
God  and  man,  and  above  all  me  and  the  Genoese,  for  taking  the 
Europe  voyage,  as  if  I  had  not  sins  enough  of  my  own  already. 
And  last  of  all,  when  we  thought  ourselves  safe,  we  were 
wrecked  by  south-westers  on  the  coast  of  Brittany,  near  to  Cape 
Race,  from  which  but  nine  sou!s  of  us  came  ashore  with  their 
lives  ;  and  so  to  Brest,  where  I  found  a  Flushinger  who  carried 
me  to  Falmouth ;  and  so  ends  my  tale,  in  which  if  I  have 
said  one  word  more  or  less  than  truth,  I  can  wish  myself  no 
worse,  than  to  have  it  all  to  undergo  a  second  time." 

And  his  voice,  as  he  finished,  sank  from  very  weariness  of 
soul ;  while  Sir  Richard  sat  opposite  him  in  silence,  his  elbows 
on  the  table,  his  cheeks  on  his  doubled  fists,  looking  him 
through  and  through  with  kindling  eyes.  No  one  spoke  for 
several  minutes ;  and  then — 

"  Amyas,  you  have  heard  this  story.     You  believe  it  V 

"  Every  word,  sir,  or  I  should  not  have  the  heart  of  a 
Christian  man." 

"  So  do  I.     Anthony  !" 

The  butler  entered. 

"  Take  this  man  to  the  buttery ;  clothe  him  comfortably, 
and  feed  him  with  the  best ;  and  bid  the  knaves  treat  him  as 
if  he  were  their  own  father." 

But  Yeo  lingered. 

"  If  I  might  be  so  bold  as  to  ask  your  worship  a  favour? " 

"  Anything  in  reason,  my  brave  fellow." 

"  If  your  worship  could  put  me  in  the  way  of  another  adven- 
ture to  the  Indies'!" 

"  Another  !    Hast  not  had  enough  of  the  Spaniards  already  1" 

"  Never  enough,  sir,  while  one  of  the  idolatrous  tyrants  is 
left  unhanged,"  said  he,  with  a  right  bitter  smile.  "But  it's 
not  for  that  only,  sir  :  but  my  little  maid — Oh,  sir  !  my  little 
maid,  that  I  swore  to  Mr.  Oxenham  to  look  to,  and  never  saw 
her  from  that  day  to  this  !  I  must  find  her,  sir,  or  I  shall  go 
mad,  I  believe.  Not  a  night  but  she  comes  and  calls  to  me  in 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  155 

my  dreams,  the  poor  darling ;  and  not  a  morning  but  when  I 
wake  there  is  my  oath  lying  on  my  soul,  like  a  great  black 
cloud,  and  I  no  nearer  the  keeping  of  it.  I  told  that  poor 
young  minister  of  it  when  we  were  in  the  galleys  together ;  and 
he  said  oaths  were  oaths,  and  keep  it  I  must ;  and  keep  it  I 
will,  sir,  if  you'll  but  help  me." 

"  Have  patience,  man.  God  will  take  as  good  care  of  thy 
little  maid  as  ever  thou  wilt." 

"  I  know  it,  sir.  I  know  it :  but  faith's  weak,  sir  !  and 
oh !  if  she  were  bred  up  a  Papist  and  an  idolater ;  wouldn't 
her  blood  be  on  my  head  then,  sir  1  Sooner  than  that,  sooner 
than  that,  I'd  be  in  the  Inquisition  again  to-morrow,  I  would ! " 

"My  good  fellow,  there  are  no  adventures  to  the  Indies 
forward  now :  but  if  you  want  to  fight  Spaniards,  here  is  a 
gentleman  will  show  you  the  way.  Amyas,  take  him  with  you 
to  Ireland.  If  he  has  learnt  half  the  lessons  God  has  set  him 
to  learn,  he  ought  to  stand  you  in  good  stead." 

Yeo  looked  eagerly  at  the  young  giant. 

"  Will  you  have  me,  sir  1  There's  few  matters  I  can't  turn 
my  hand  to :  and  maybe  you'll  be  going  to  the  Indies  again, 
some  day,  eh  ?  and  take  me  with  you  1  I'd  serve  your  turn  well, 
though  I  say  it,  either  for  gunner  or  for  pilot  I  know  every 
stone  and  tree  from  N  ombre  to  Panama,  and  all  the  ports  of 
both  the  seas.  You'll  never  be  content,  I'll  warrant,  till  you've 
had  another  turn  along  the  gold  coasts,  will  you  now?" 

Amyas  laughed,  and  nodded ;  and  the  bargain  was  concluded. 

So  out  went  Yeo  to  eat,  and  Amyas  having  received  his 
despatches,  got  ready  for  his  journey  home. 

"Go  the  short  way  over  the  moors,  lad;  and  send  back 
Gary's  grey  when  you  can.  You  must  not  lose  an  hour,  but  be 
ready  to  sail  the  moment  the  wind  goes  about." 

So  they  started  :  but  as  Amyas  was  getting  into  the  saddle, 
he  saw  that  there  was  some  stir  among  the  servants,  who  seemed 
to  keep  carefully  out  of  Yeo's  way,  whispering  and  nodding 
mysteriously ;  and  just  as  his  foot  was  in  the  stirrup,  Anthony, 
the  old  butler,  plucked  him  back. 

"Dear  father  alive,  Mr.  Amyas!"  whispered  he:  "and 
you  ben't  going  by  the  moor  road  all  alone  with  that  chap  ?" 

"  Why  not,  then  1     I'm  too  big  for  him  to  eat,  I  reckon." 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Amyas  !  he's  not  right,  I  tell  you ;  not  company 
for  a  Christian — to  go  forth  with  creatures  as  has  flames  of  fire 
in  their  inwards ;  'tis  temptation  of  Providence,  indeed,  then, 
it  is." 


156  TRUE  AND  TRAGICAL  HISTORY  [CHAP.  vir. 

"  Tale  of  a  tub." 

"  Tale  of  a  Christian,  sir.  There  was  two  boys  pig-minding, 
seed  him  at  it  down  the  hill,  beside  a  maiden  that  was  taken 
mazed  (and  no  wonder,  poor  soul !)  and  lying  in  screeching 
asterisks  now  down  to  the  mill — you  ask  as  you  go  by — and 
saw  the  flames  come  out  of  the  mouth  of  mun,  and  the  smoke 
out  of  mim's  nose  like  a  vire-drake,  and  the  roaring  of  mun  like 
the  roaring  of  ten  thousand  bulls.  Oh,  sir  !  and  to  go  with  he 
after  dark  over  moor !  'Tis  the  devil's  devices,  sir,  against 
you,  because  you'm  going  against  his  sarvants  the  Pope  of  Room 
and  the  Spaniard;  and  you'll  be  Pixy-led,  sure  as  life,  and 
locked  into  a  bog,  you  will,  and  see  mun  vanish  away  to  fire 
and  brimstone,  like  a  jack-o'-lantern.  Oh,  have  a  care,  then, 
have  a  care !" 

And  the  old  man  wrung  his  hands,  while  Amyas,  bursting 
with  laughter,  rode  off  down  the  park,  with  the  unconscious 
Yeo  at  his  stirrup,  chatting  away  about  the  Indies,  and  delight- 
ing Amyas  more  and  more  by  his  shrewdness,  high  spirit,  and 
rough  eloquence. 

They  had  gone  ten  miles  or  more  ;  the  day  began  to  draw 
in,  and  the  western  wind  to  sweep  more  cold  and  cheerless 
every  moment,  when  Amyas,  knowing  that  there  was  not  an 
inn  hard  by  around  for  many  a  mile  ahead,  took  a  pull  at  a 
certain  bottle  which  Lady  Grenvile  had  put  into  his  holster, 
and  then  offered  Yeo  a  pull  also. 

He  declined ;  he  had  meat  and  drink  too  about  him,  Heaven 
be  praised  ! 

"Meat  and  drink?  Fall  to,  then,  man,  and  don't  stand  on 
manners." 

Whereon  Yeo,  seeing  an  old  decayed  willow  by  a  brook, 
went  to  it,  and  took  therefrom  some  touchwood,  to  which  he 
set  a  light  with  his  knife  and  a  stone,  while  Amyas  watched, 
a  little  puzzled  and  startled,  as  Yeo's  fiery  reputation  came 
into  his  mind.  Was  he  really  a  Salamander-Sprite,  and  going 
to  warm  his  inside  by  a  meal  of  burning  tinder  1  But  now  Yeo, 
in  his  solemn  methodical  way,  pulled  out  of  his  bosom  a  brown 
leaf,  and  began  rolling  a  piece  of  it  up  neatly  to  the  size  of  his 
little  finger ;  and  then,  putting  the  one  end  into  his  mouth  and 
the  other  on  the  tinder,  sucked  at  it  till  it  was  a-light ;  and 
drinking  down  the  smoke,  began  puffing  it  out  again  at  his 
nostrils  with  a  grunt  of  deepest  satisfaction,  and  resumed  his 
dog-trot  by  Amyas's  side,  as  if  he  had  been  a  walking  chimney. 

On  which  Amyas  burst  into  a  loud  laugh,  and  cried — 


(  HAI.  vn.]  OF  MR.   JOHN  OXENHAM.  157 

"  Why,  no  wonder  they  said  you  breathed  fire  1  Is  not  that 
the  Indians'  tobacco?" 

"  Yea,  verily,  Heaven  be  praised  !  but  did  you  never  see  it 
before?" 

"  Never,  though  we  heard  talk  of  it  along  the  coast ;  but  we 
took  it  for  one  more  Spanish  lie.  Humph — well,  live  and  learn !" 

"  Ah,  sir,  no  lie,  but  a  blessed  truth,  as  I  can  tell,  who  have 
ere  now  gone  in  the  strength  of  this  weed  three  days  and  nights 
without  eating ;  and  therefore,  sir,  the  Indians  always  carry  it 
with  them  on  their  war-parties  :  and  no  wonder  ;  for  when  all 
things  were  made  none  was  made  better  than  this  ;  to  be  a  lone 
man's  companion,  a  bachelor's  friend,  a  hungry  man's  food,  a  sad 
man's  cordial,  a  wakeful  man's  sleep,  and  a  chilly  man's  fire,  sir ; 
while  for  stanching  of  wounds,  purging  of  rheum,  and  settling 
of  the  stomach,  there's  no  herb  like  unto  it  under  the  canopy  of 
heaven." 

The  truth  of  which  eulogium  Amyas  tested  in  after  years, 
as  shall  be  fully  set  forth  in  due  place  and  time.  But  "  Mark 
in  the  meanwhile,"  says  one  of  the  veracious  chroniclers  from 
whom  I  draw  these  facts,  writing  seemingly  in  the  palmy  days 
of  good  Queen  Anne,  and  "  not  having  "  (as  he  says)  "  before 
his  eyes  the  fear  of  that  misocapnic  Solomon  James  I.  or  of  any 
other  lying  Stuart,"  "  that  not  to  South  Devon,  but  to  North  ; 
not  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  but  to  Sir  Amyas  Leigh ;  not  to  the 
banks  of  Dart,  but  to  the  banks  of  Torridge,  does  Europe  owe 
the  day-spring  of  the  latter  age,  that  age  of  smoke  which  shall 
endure  and  thrive,  when  the  age  of  brass  shall  have  vanished 
like  those  of  iron  and  of  gold ;  for  whereas  Mr.  Lane  is  said  to 
have  brought  home  that  divine  weed  (as  Spenser  well  names  it) 
from  Virginia,  in  the  year  1584,  it  is  hereby  indisputable  that 
full  four  years  earlier,  by  the  bridge  of  Putford  in  the  Torridge 
moors  (which  all  true  smokers  shall  hereafter  visit  as  a  hallowed 
spot  and  point  of  pilgrimage)  first  twinkled  that  fiery  beacon 
and  beneficent  lodestar  of  Bidefordian  commerce,  to  spread  here- 
after from  port  to  port  and  peak  to  peak,  like  the  watch-fires 
which  proclaimed  the  coming  of  the  Armada  or  the  fall  of  Troy, 
even  to  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus,  the  peaks  of  the  Caucasus, 
and  the  farthest  isles  of  the  Malayan  sea ;  while  Bideford, 
metropolis  of  tobacco,  saw  her  Pool  choked  with  Virginian 
traders,  and  the  pavement  of  her  Bridgeland  Street  groaning 
beneath  the  savoury  bales  of  roll  Trinadado,  leaf,  and  pudding ; 
and  her  grave  burghers,  bolstered  and  blocked  out  of  their  own 
houses  by  the  scarce  less  savoury  stock-fish  casks  which  filled 


158  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  VIII. 

cellar,  parlour,  and  attic,  were  fain  to  sit  outside  the  door,  a 
silver  pipe  in  every  strong  right  hand,  and  each  left  hand  chink- 
ing cheerfully  the  doubloons  deep  lodged  in  the  auriferous 
caverns  of  their  trunkhose ;  while  in  those  fairy-rings  of  fragrant 
inist,  which  circled  round  their  contemplative  brows,  flitted  most 
pleasant  visions  of  Wiltshire  farmers  jogging  into  Sherborne 
fair,  their  heaviest  shillings  in  their  pockets,  to  buy  (unless  old 
Aubrey  lies)  the  lotus-leaf  of  Torridge  for  its  weight  in  silver, 
and  draw  from  thence,  after  the  example  of  the  Caciques  of 
Dariena,  supplies  of  inspiration  much  needed,  then  as  now,  in 
those  Gothamite  regions.  And  yet  did  these  improve,  as  English- 
men, upon  the  method  of  those  heathen  savages ;  for  the  latter 
(so  Salvation  Yeo  reported  as  a  truth,  and  Dampier's  surgeon  Mr. 
Wafer  after  him),  when  they  will  deliberate  of  war  or  policy,  sit 
round  in  the  hut  of  the  chief;  where  being  placed,  enter  to  them  a 
small  boy  with  a  cigarro  of  the  bigness  of  a  rolling-pin,  and  puffs 
the  smoke  thereof  into  the  face  of  each  warrior,  from  the  eldest 
to  the  youngest;  while  they,  putting  their  hand  funnel-wise 
round  their  mouths,  draw  into  the  sinuosities  of  the  brain  that 
more  than  Delphic  vapour  of  prophecy ;  which  boy  presently 
falls  down  in  a  swoon,  and  being  dragged  out  by  the  heels  and 
laid  by  to  sober,  enter  another  to  puff  at  the  sacred  cigarro,  till 
he  is  dragged  out  likewise ;  and  so  on  till  the  tobacco  is  finished, 
and  the  seed  of  wisdom  has  sprouted  in  every  soul  into  the  tree 
of  meditation,  bearing  the  flowers  of  eloquence,  and  in  due  time 
the  fruit  of  valiant  action."  With  which  quaint  fact  (for  fact 
it  is,  in  spite  of  the  bombast)  I  end  the  present  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED. 

"  It  is  virtue,  yea  virtue,  gentlemen,  that  maketh  gentlemen  ;  that  maketh 
the  poor  rich,  the  base-born  noble,  the  subject  a  sovereign,  the  de- 
formed beautiful,  the  sick  whole,  the  weak  strong,  the  most  miserable 
most  happy.  There  are  two  principal  and  peculiar  gifts  in  the  nature 
of  man,  knowledge  and  reason ;  the  one  commandeth,  and  the  other 
obeyeth  :  these  things  neither  the  whirling  wheel  of  fortune  can 
change,  neither  the  deceitful  cavillings  of  worldlings  separate,  neither 
sickness  abate,  neither  age  abolish." — LILLY'S  Euphues,  1586. 

IT  now  falls  to  my  lot  to  write  of  the  foundation  of  that  most 
chivalrous  brotherhood  of  the  Rose,  which  after  a  few  years  made 
itself  not  only  famous  in  its  native  county  of  Devon,  but  for- 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  159 

miiluble,  as  will  be  related  hereafter,  both  in  Ireland  and  in  the 
Netherlands,  in  the  Spanish  Main  and  the  heart  of  South 
America.  And  if  this  chapter  shall  seem  to  any  Quixotic  and 
fantastical,  let  them  recollect  that  the  generation  who  spoke  and 
acted  thus  in  matters  of  love  and  honour  were,  nevertheless, 
practised  and  valiant  soldiers,  and  prudent  and  crafty  politicians ; 
that  he  who  wrote  the  Arcadia  was  at  the  same  time,  in  spite 
of  his  youth,  one  of  the  subtlest  diplomatists  of  Europe ;  that 
the  poet  of  the  Faery  Queene  was  also  the  author  of  The  State 
of  Ireland ;  and  if  they  shall  quote  against  me  with  a  sneer 
Lilly's  Euphues  itself,  I  shall  only  answer  by  asking — Have  they 
ever  read  it  ?  For  if  they  have  done  so,  I  pity  them  if  they  have 
not  found  it,  in  spite  of  occasional  tediousness  and  pedantry,  as 
brave,  righteous,  and  pious  a  book  as  man  need  look  into :  and 
wish  for  no  better  proof  of  the  nobleness  and  virtue  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan age,  than  the  fact  that  "  Euphues  "  and  the  "  Arcadia  " 
were  the  two  popular  romances  of  the  day.  It  may  have  suited 
the  purposes  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in  his  cleverly  drawn  Sir 
Piercie  Shafton,  to  ridicule  the  Euphuists,  and  that  ajfectatam 
comitatem  of  the  travelled  English  of  which  Languet  complains; 
but  over  and  above  the  anachronism  of  the  whole  character  (for, 
to  give  but  one  instance,  the  Euphuist  knight  talks  of  Sidney's 
quarrel  with  Lord  Oxford  at  least  ten  years  before  it  happened), 
we  do  deny  that  Lilly's  book  could,  if  read  by  any  man  of  common 
sense,  produce  such  a  coxcomb,  whose  spiritual  ancestors  would 
rather  have  been  Gabriel  Harvey  and  Lord  Oxford, — if  indeed 
the  former  has  not  maligned  the  latter,  and  ill-tempered  Tom 
Nash  maligned  the  maligner  in  his  turn. 

But,  indeed,  there  is  a  double  anachronism  in  Sir  Piercie ; 
for  he  does  not  even  belong  to  the  days  of  Sidney,  but  to  those 
worse  times  which  began  in  the  latter  years  of  Elizabeth,  and 
after  breaking  her  mighty  heart,  had  full  licence  to  bear  their 
crop  of  fools'  heads  in  the  profligate  days  of  James.  Of  them, 
perhaps,  hereafter.  And  in  the  meanwhile,  let  those  who  have 
not  read  "  Euphues  "  believe  that,  if  they  could  train  a  son  after 
the  fashion  of  his  Ephoebus,  to  the  great  saving  of  their  own 
money  and  his  virtue,  all  fathers,  even  in  these  money-making 
days,  would  rise  up  and  call  them  blessed.  Let  us  rather  open 
our  eyes,  and  see  in  these  old  Elizabeth  gallants  our  own  ances- 
tors, showing  forth  with  the  luxuriant  wildness  of  youth  all 
the  virtues  which  still  go  to  the  making  of  a  true  Englishman. 
Let  us  not  only  see  in  their  commercial  and  military  daring,  in 
their  political  astuteness,  in  their  deep  reverence  for  law,  and 


160  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  vill. 

in  their  solemn  sense  of  the  great  calling  of  the  English  nation, 
the  antitypes  or  rather  the  examples  of  our  own :  but  let  us 
confess  that  their  chivalry  is  only  another  garb  of  that  beautiful 
tenderness  and  mercy  which  is  now,  as  it  was  then,  the  twin 
sister  of  English  valour ;  and  even  in  their  extravagant  fond- 
ness for  Continental  manners  and  literature,  let  us  recognise 
that  old  Anglo-Norman  teachableness  and  wide -heartedii ess, 
which  has  enabled  us  to  profit  by  the  wisdom  and  civilisation 
of  all  ages  and  of  all  lands,  without  prejudice  to  our  own  dis- 
tinctive national  character. 

And  so  I  go  to  my  story,  which,  if  any  one  dislikes,  he  has 
but  to  turn  the  leaf  till  he  finds  pasturage  which  suits  him 
better. 

Amyas  could  not  sail  the  next  day,  or  the  day  after; 
for  the  south-wester  freshened,  and  blew  three  parts  of  a  gale 
dead  into  the  bay.  So  having  got  the  Mary  Grenvile  down  the 
river  into  Appledore  pool,  ready  to  start  with  the  first  shift  of 
wind,  he  went  quietly  home ;  and  when  his  mother  started  on 
a  pillion  behind  the  old  serving-man  to  ride  to  Clovelly,  where 
Frank  lay  wounded,  he  went  in  with  her  as  far  as  Bideford,  and 
there  met,  coming  down  the  High  Street,  a  procession  of  horse- 
men headed  by  Will  Gary,  who,  clad  cap-a-pie'  in  shining  armour, 
sword  on  thigh,  and  helmet  at  saddle-bow,  looked  as  gallant  a 
young  gentleman  as  ever  Bideford  dames  peeped  at  from  door 
and  window.  Behind  him,  upon  country  ponies,  came  four  or 
five  stout  serving-men,  carrying  his  lances  and  baggage,  and 
their  own  long-bows,  swords,  and  bucklers ;  and  behind  all,  in 
a  horse-litter,  to  Mrs.  Leigh's  great  joy,  Master  Frank  himself. 
He  deposed  that  his  wounds  were  only  flesh-wounds,  the  dagger 
having  turned  against  his  ribs ;  that  he  must  see  the  last  of 
his  brother ;  and  that  with  her  good  leave  he  would  not  come 
home  to  Burrough,  but  take  up  his  abode  with  Gary  in  the  Ship 
Tavern,  close  to  the  Bridge-foot.  This  he  did  forthwith,  and 
settling  himself  on  a  couch,  held  his  levee  there  in  state,  mobbed 
by  all  the  gossips  of  the  town,  not  without  white  fibs  as  to  who 
had  brought  him  into  that  sorry  plight. 

But  in  the  meanwhile,  he  and  Amyas  concocted  a  scheme, 
which  was  put  into  effect  the  next  day  (being  market-day) ; 
first  by  the  innkeeper,  who  began  under  Amyas's  orders  a 
bustle  of  roasting,  boiling,  and  frying,  unparalleled  in  the  annals 
of  the  Ship  Tavern ;  and  next  by  Amyas  himself,  who,  going 
out  into  the  market,  invited  as  many  of  his  old  schoolfellows, 
one  by  one  apart,  as  Frank  had  pointed  out  to  him,  to  a  merry 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  101 

supper  and  a  "rowse"  thereon  consequent;  by  which  crafty 
scheme,  in  came  each  of  Rose  Salterne's  gentle  admirers,  and 
found  himself,  to  his  considerable  disgust,  seated  at  the  same 
table  with  six  rivals,  to  none  of  whom  had  he  spoken  for  the 
last  six  months.  However,  all  were  too  well  bred  to  let  the 
Leighs  discern  as  much ;  and  they  (though,  of  course,  they 
knew  all)  settled  their  guests,  Frank  on  his  couch  lying  at  the 
head  of  the  table,  and  Amyas  taking  the  bottom  :  and  contrived, 
by  filling  all  mouths  with  good  things,  to  save  them  the  pain 
of  speaking  to  each  other  till  the  wine  should  have  loosened 
their  tongues  and  warmed  their  hearts.  In  the  meanwhile  both 
Amyas  and  Frank,  ignoring  the  silence  of  their  guests  with  the 
most  provoking  good-humour,  chatted,  and  joked,  and  told 
stories,  and  made  themselves  such  good  company,  that  Will 
Gary,  who  always  found  merriment  infectious,  melted  into  a 
jest,  and  then  into  another,  and  finding  good-humour  far  more 
pleasant  than  bad,  tried  to  make  Mr.  Coffin  laugh,  and  only 
made  him  bow,  and  to  make  Mr.  Fortescue  laugh,  and  only 
made  him  frown ;  and  unabashed  nevertheless,  began  playing 
his  light  artillery  upon  the  waiters,  till  he  drove  them  out  of 
the  room  bursting  with  laughter. 

So  far  so  good.  And  when  the  cloth  was  drawn,  and  sack 
and  sugar  became  the  order  of  the  day,  and  "  Queen  and  Bible  " 
had  been  duly  drunk  with  all  the  honours,  Frank  tried  a  fresh 
move,  and — 

"  I  have  a  toast,  gentlemen — here  it  is.  '  The  gentlemen 
of  the  Irish  wars ;  and  may  Ireland  never  be  without  a  St. 
Leger  to  stand  by  a  Fortescue,  a  Fortescue  to  stand  by  a  St. 
Leger,  and  a  Chichester  to  stand  by  both.' " 

Which  toast  of  course  involved  the  drinking  the  healths  of 
the  three  representatives  of  those  families,  and  their  returning 
thanks,  and  paying  a  compliment  each  to  the  other's  house : 
and  so  the  ice  cracked  a  little  further ;  and  young  Fortescue 
proposed  the  health  of  "  Amyas  Leigh,  and  all  bold  mariners ;" 
to  which  Amyas  replied  by  a  few  blunt  kindly  words,  "  that  he 
wished  to  know  no  better  fortune  than  to  sail  round  the  world 
again  with  the  present  company  as  fellow-adventurers,  and  so 
give  the  Spaniards  another  taste  of  the  men  of  Devon." 

And  by  this  time,  the  wine  going  down  sweetly,  caused  the 
lips  of  them  that  were  asleep  to  speak ;  till  the  ice  broke  up 
altogether,  and  every  man  began  talking  like  a  rational  English- 
man to  the  man  who  sat  next  him. 

"  And  now,  gentlemen,"  said  Frank,  who  saw  that  it  was 

M 


162  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  VIII. 

the  fit  moment  for  the  grand  assault  which  he  had  planned  all 
along ;  "let  me  give  you  a  health  which  none  of  you,  I  dare 
say,  will  refuse  to  drink  with  heart  and  soul  as  well  as  with 
lips ; — the  health  of  one  whom  beauty  and  virtue  have  so  en- 
nobled, that  in  their  light  the  shadow  of  lowly  birth  is  unseen ; 
— the  health  of  one  whom  I  would  proclaim  as  peerless  in  loveli- 
ness, were  it  not  that  every  gentleman  here  has  sisters,  who 
might  well  challenge  from  her  the  girdle  of  Venus :  and  yet 
what  else  dare  I  say,  while  those  same  lovely  ladies  who,  if 
they  but  use  their  own  mirrors,  must  needs  be  far  better  judges 
of  beauty  than  I  can  be,  have  in  my  own  hearing  again  and 
again  assigned  the  palm  to  her  1  Surely,  if  the  goddesses  decide 
among  themselves  the  question  of  the  golden  apple,  Paris  him- 
self must  vacate  the  judgment-seat.  Gentlemen,  your  hearts, 
I  doubt  not,  have  already  bid  you,  as  my  unworthy  lips  do  now, 
to  drink  '  The  Eose  of  Torridge.'  " 

If  the  Eose  of  Torridge  herself  had  walked  into  the  room  she 
could  hardly  have  caused  more  blank  astonishment  than  Frank's 
bold  speech.  Every  guest  turned  red,  and  pale,  and  red  again, 
and  looked  at  the  other  as  much  as  to  say,  "  What  right  has  any 
one  but  I  to  drink  her  ?  Lift  your  glass,  and  I  will  dash  it  out 
of  your  hand;"  but  Frank,  with  sweet  effrontery,  drank  "The 
health  of  the  Eose  of  Torridge,  and  a  double  health  to  that 
worthy  gentleman,  whosoever  he  may  be,  whom  she  is  fated  to 
honour  with  her  love  !" 

"Well  done,  cunning  Frank  Leigh!"  cried  blunt  Will  Gary; 
"  none  of  us  dare  quarrel  with  you  now,  however  much  we  may 
sulk  at  each  other.  For  there's  none  of  us,  I'll  warrant,  but 
thinks  that  she  likes  him  the  best  of  all ;  and  so  we  are  bound 
to  believe  that  you  have  drunk  our  healths  all  round." 

"  And  so  I  have :  and  what  better  thing  can  you  do,  gentle- 
men, than  to  drink  each  other's  healths  all  round  likewise  :  and 
so  show  yourselves  true  gentlemen,  true  Christians,  ay,  and 
true  lovers?  For  what  is  love  (let  me  speak  freely  to  you, 
gentlemen  and  guests),  what  is  love,  but  the  very  inspiration  of 
that  Deity  whose  name  is  Love  ?  Be  sure  that  not  without 
reason  did  the  ancients  feign  Eros  to  be  the  eldest  of  the  gods, 
by  whom  the  jarring  elements  of  chaos  were  attuned  into  har- 
mony and  order.  How,  then,  shall  lovers  make  him  the  father 
of  strife  ?  Shall  Psyche  wed  with  Cupid,  to  bring  forth  a  cock- 
atrice's egg  ?  or  the  soul  be  filled  with  love,  the  likeness  of  the 
immortals,  to  burn  with  envy  and  jealousy,  division  and  distrust? 
True,  the  rose  has  its  thorn  :  but  it  leaves  poison  and  stings  to 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  163 

the  nettle.  Cupid  has  his  arrow  :  but  he  hurls  no  scorpions. 
Venus  is  awful  when  despised,  as  the  daughters  of  Prcetus 
found  :  but  her  handmaids  are  the  Graces,  not  the  Furies. 
Surely  he  who  loves  aright  will  not  only  find  love  lovely,  but 
become  himself  lovely  also.  I  speak  not  to  reprehend  you, 
gentlemen  ;  for  to  you  (as  your  piercing  wits  have  already  per- 
ceived, to  judge  by  your  honourable  blushes)  my  discourse  tends; 
but  to  point  you,  if  you  will  but  permit  me,  to  that  rock  which 
I  myself  have,  I  know  not  by  what  Divine  good  hap,  attained ; 
if,  indeed,  I  have  attained  it,  and  am  not  about  to  be  washed 
off  again  by  the  next  tide." 

Frank's  rapid  and  fantastic  oratory,  utterly  unexpected  as  it 
was,  had  as  yet  left  their  wits  no  time  to  set  their  tempers  on 
fire  ;  but  when,  weak  from  his  wounds,  he  paused  for  breath, 
there  was  a  haughty  murmur  from  more  than  one  young  gentle- 
man, who  took  his  speech  as  an  impertinent  interference  with 
each  man's  right  to  make  a  fool  of  himself ;  and  Mr.  Coffin, 
who  had  sat  quietly  bolt  upright,  and  looking  at  the  opposite 
wall,  now  rose  as  quietly,  and  with  a  face  which  tried  to  look 
utterly  unconcerned,  was  walking  out  of  the  room :  another 
minute,  and  Lady  Bath's  prophecy  about  the  feast  of  the  Lapi- 
thse  might  have  come  true. 

But  Frank's  heart  and  head  never  failed  him. 

"Mr.  Coffin!"  said  he,  in  a  tone  which  compelled  that 
gentleman  to  turn  round,  and  so  brought  him  under  the  power 
of  a  face  which  none  could  have  beheld  for  five  minutes  and 
borne  malice,  so  imploring,  tender,  earnest  was  it.  "  My  dear 
Mr.  Coffin !  If  my  earnestness  has  made  me  forget  even  for 
a  moment  the  bounds  of  courtesy,  let  me  entreat  you  to  for- 
give me.  Do  not  add  to  my  heavy  griefs,  heavy  enough 
already,  the  grief  of  losing  a  friend.  Only  hear  me  patiently 
to  the  end  (generously,  I  know,  you  will  hear  me);  and  then, 
if  you  are  still  incensed,  I  can  but  again  entreat  your  forgive- 
ness a  second  time." 

Mr.  Coffin,  to  tell  the  truth,  had  at  that  time  never  been 
to  Court ;  and  he  was  therefore  somewhat  jealous  of  Frank, 
and  his  Court  talk,  and  his  Court  clothes,  and  his  Court  com- 
pany ;  and  moreover,  being  the  eldest  of  the  guests,  and  only 
two  years  younger  than  Frank  himself,  he  was  a  little  nettled 
at  being  classed  in  the  same  category  with  some  who  were  scarce 
eighteen.  And  if  Frank  had  given  the  least  hint  which  seemed 
to  assume  his  own  superiority,  all  had  been  lost :  but  when, 
instead  thereof,  he  sued  in  formd  pauperis,  and  threw  himself 


164  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  VIII. 

upon  Coffin's  mercy,  the  latter,  who  was  a  true-hearted  man 
enough,  and  after  all  had  known  Frank  ever  since  either  of 
them  could  walk,  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  sit  down  again  and 
submit,  while  Frank  went  on  more  earnestly  than  ever. 

"  Believe  me  ;  believe  me,  Mr.  Coffin,  and  gentlemen  all,  I 
no  more  arrogate  to  myself  a  superiority  over  you  than  does 
the  sailor  hurled  on  shore  by  the  surge  fancy  himself  better 
than  his  comrade  who  is  still  battling  with  the  foam.  For  I 
too,  gentlemen, — let  me  confess  it,  that  by  confiding  in  you  I 
may,  perhaps,  win  you  to  confide  in  me, — have  loved,  ay  and  do 
love,  where  you  love  also.  Do  not  start.  Is  it  a  matter  of 
wonder  that  the  sun  which  has  dazzled  you  has  dazzled  me ; 
that  the  lodestone  which  has  drawn  you  has  drawn  me  ?  Do 
not  frown,  either,  gentlemen.  I  have  learnt  to  love  you  for 
loving  what  I  love,  and  to  admire  you  for  admiring  that  which 
I  admire.  Will  you  not  try  the  same  lesson :  so  easy,  and, 
when  learnt,  so  blissful  1  What  breeds  more  close  communion 
between  subjects  than  allegiance  to  the  same  queen  1  between 
brothers,  than  duty  to  the  same  father  1  between  the  devout, 
than  adoration  for  the  same  Deity  ?  And  shall  not  worship  for 
the  same  beauty  be  likewise  a  bond  of  love  between  the  worship- 
pers ?  and  each  lover  see  in  his  rival  not  an  enemy,  but  a  fellow- 
sufferer  1  You  smile  and  say  in  your  hearts,  that  though  all 
may  worship,  but  one  can  enjoy ;  and  that  one  man's  meat  must 
be  the  poison  of  the  rest.  Be  it  so,  though  I  deny  it.  Shall 
we  anticipate  our  own  doom,  and  slay  ourselves  for  fear  of  dying? 
Shall  we  make  ourselves  unworthy  of  her  from  our  very  eager- 
ness to  win  her,  and  show  ourselves  her  faithful  knights,  by 
cherishing  envy, — most  unknightly  of  all  sins  1  Shall  we  dream 
with  the  Italian  or  the  Spaniard  that  we  can  become  more 
amiable  in  a  lady's  eyes,  by  becoming  hateful  in  the  eyes  of  God 
and  of  each  other  1  Will  she  love  us  the  better,  if  we  come  to 
her  with  hands  stained  in  the  blood  of  him  whom  she  loves 
better  than  us  ?  Let  us  recollect -ourselves  rather,  gentlemen  ; 
and  be  sure  that  our  only  chance  of  winning  her,  if  she  be  worth 
winning,  is  to  will  what  she  wills,  honour  whom  she  honours, 
love  whom  she  loves.  If  there  is  to  be  rivalry  among  us,  let 
it  be  a  rivalry  in  nobleness,  an  emulation  in  virtue.  Let  each 
try  to  outstrip  the  other  in  loyalty  to  his  queen,  in  valour 
against  her  foes,  in  deeds  of  courtesy  and  mercy  to  the  afflicted 
and  oppressed ;  and  thus  our  love  will  indeed  prove  its  own 
divine  origin,  by  raising  us  nearer  to  those  gods  whose  gift  it  is. 
But  yet  I  show  you  a  more  excellent  way,  and  that  is  charity. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  165 

Why  should  we  not  make  this  common  love  to  her,  whom  I  am 
unworthy  to  name,  the  sacrament  of  a  common  love  to  each 
other1?  Why  should  we  not  follow  the  heroical  examples  of 
those  ancient  knights,  who  having  but  one  grief,  one  desire, 
one  goddess,  held  that  one  heart  was  enough  to  contain  that 
grief,  to  nourish  that  desire,  to  worship  that  divinity ;  and  so 
uniting  themselves  in  friendship  till  they  became  but  one  soul 
in  two  bodies,  lived  only  for  each  other  in  living  only  for  her, 
vowing  as  faithful  worshippers  to  abide  by  her  decision,  to  find 
their  own  bliss  in  hers,  and  whomsoever  she  esteemed  most 
worthy  of  her  love,  to  esteem  most  worthy  also,  and  count  them- 
selves, by  that  her  choice,  the  bounden  servants  of  him  whom 
their  mistress  had  condescended  to  advance  to  the  dignity  of 
her  master  ? — as  I  (not  without  hope  that  I  shall  be  outdone  in 
generous  strife)  do  here  promise  to  be  the  faithful  friend,  and, 
to  my  ability,  the  hearty  servant,  of  him  who  shall  be  honoured 
with  the  love  of  the  Rose  of  Torridge." 

He  ceased,  and  there  was  a  pause. 

At  last  young  Fortescue  spoke. 

"  I  may  be  paying  you  a  left-handed  compliment,  sir  :  but 
it  seems  to  me  that  you  are  so  likely,  in  that  case,  to  become 
your  own  faithful  friend  and  hearty  servant  (even  if  you  have 
not  borne  off  the  bell  already  while  we  have  been  asleep),  that 
the  bargain  is  hardly  fair  between  such  a  gay  Italianist  and  us 
country  swains." 

"  You  undervalue  yourself  and  your  country,  my  dear  sir. 
But  set  your  mind  at  rest.  I  know  no  more  of  that  lady's  mind 
than  you  do  :  nor  shall  I  know.  For  the  sake  of  my  own  peace, 
I  have  made  a  vow  neither  to  see  her,  nor  to  hear,  if  possible, 
tidings  of  her,  till  three  full  years  are  past.  Dixi  ?" 

Mr.  Coffin  rose. 

"  Gentlemen,  I  may  submit  to  be  outdone  by  Mr.  Leigh  in 
eloquence,  but  not  in  generosity ;  if  he  leaves  these  parts  for 
three  years,  I  do  so  also." 

"  And  go  in  charity  with  all  mankind,"  said  Gary.  "  Give 
us  your  hand,  old  fellow.  If  you  are  a  Coffin,  you  were  sawn 
out  of  no  wishy-washy  elm-board,  but  right  heart-of-oak.  I  am 
going,  too,  as  Arnyas  here  can  tell,  to  Ireland  away,  to  cool  my 
hot  liver  in  a  bog,  like  a  Jack-hare  in  March.  Come,  give  us 
thy  neif,  and  let  us  part  in  peace.  I  was  minded  to  have  fought 
thee  this  day — 

"  I  should  have  been  most  happy,  sir,"  said  Coffin. 

— "  But  now  I  am  all  love  and  charity  to  mankind.     Can 


166  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [cHAP.  VIII. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  begging  pardon  of  the  world  in  general, 
and  thee  in  particular  ?  Does  any  one  wish  to  pull  my  nose ; 
send  me  an  errand  ;  make  me  lend  him  five  pounds  ;  ay,  make 
me  buy  a  horse  of  him,  which  will  be  as  good  as  giving  him  ten  ? 
Come  along  !  Join  hands  all  round,  and  swear  eternal  friend- 
ship, as  brothers  of  the  sacred  order  of  the — of  what  1  Frank 
Leigh?  Open  thy  mouth,  Daniel,  and  christen  us  !" 

"  The  Rose  !"  said  Frank  quietly,  seeing  that  his  new  love- 
philtre  was  working  well,  and  determined  to  strike  while  the 
iron  was  hot,  and  carry  the  matter  too  far  to  carry  it  back  again. 

"The  Rose!"  cried  Gary,  catching  hold  of  Coffin's  hand 
with  his  right,  and  Fortescue's  with  his  left.  "  Come,  Mr. 
Coffin  !  Bend,  sturdy  oak  !  '  Woe  to  the  stiffnecked  and  stout- 
hearted !'  says  Scripture." 

And  somehow  or  other,  whether  it  was  Frank's  chivalrous 
speech,  or  Gary's  fun,  or  Amyas's  good  wine,  or  the  nobleness 
which  lies  in  every  young  lad's  heart,  if  their  elders  will  take 
the  trouble  to  call  it  out,  the  whole  party  came  in  to  terms  one 
by  one,  shook  hands  all  round,  and  vowed  on  the  hilt  of  Amyas's 
sword  to  make  fools  of  themselves  no  more,  at  least  by  jealousy : 
but  to  stand  by  each  other  and  by  their  lady-love,  and  neither 
grudge  nor  grumble,  let  her  dance  with,  flirt  with,  or  marry 
with  whom  she  would ;  and  in  order  that  the  honour  of  their 
peerless  dame,  and  the  brotherhood  which  was  named  after  her, 
might  be  spread  through  all  lands,  and  equal  that  of  Angelica 
or  Isonde  of  Brittany,  they  would  each  go  home,  and  ask  their 
fathers'  leave  (easy  enough  to  obtain  in  those  brave  times)  to 
go  abroad  wheresoever  there  were  "  good  wars,"  to  emulate  there 
the  courage  and  the  courtesy  of  Walter  Manny  and  Gonzalo 
Fernandes,  Bayard  and  Gaston  de  Foix.  Why  not  1  Sidney 
was  the  hero  of  Europe  at  five-and-twenty ;  and  why  not  they? 

And  Frank  watched  and  listened  with  one  of  his  quiet 
smiles  (his  eyes,  as  some  folks  do,  smiled  even  when  his  lips 
were  still)  and  only  said  :  "  Gentlemen,  be  sure  that  you  will 
never  repent  this  day." 

"  Repent  ?"  said  Gary.  "  I  feel  already  as  angelical  as 
thou  lookest,  Saint  Silvertongue.  What  was  it  that  sneezed  ? 
—the  cat  T 

"  The  lion,  rather,  by  the  roar  of  it,"  said  Amyas,  making 
a  dash  at  the  arras  behind  him.  "  Why,  here  is  a  doorway  here ! 
and " 

And  rushing  under  the  arras,  through  an  open  door  behind, 
he  returned,  dragging  out  by  the  head  Mr.  John  Brimblecombe. 


CHAI>.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  167 

Who  was  Mr.  John  Brimblecombe  ? 

If  you  have  forgotten  him,  you  have  done  pretty  nearly 
what  every  one  else  in  the  room  had  done.  But  you  recollect 
a  certain  fat  lad,  son  of  the  schoolmaster,  whom  Sir  Richard 
punished  for  talebearing  three  years  before,  by  sending  him,  not 
to  Coventry,  but  to  Oxford.  That  was  the  man.  He  was  now 
one-and-twenty,  and  a  bachelor  of  Oxford,  where  he  had  learnt 
such  things  as  were  taught  in  those  days,  with  more  or  less 
success ;  and  he  was  now  hanging  about  Bideford  once  more, 
intending  to  return  after  Christmas  and  read  divinity,  that  he 
might  become  a  parson,  and  a  shepherd  of  souls  in  his  native 
land. 

Jack  was  in  person  exceedingly  like  a  pig :  but  not  like 
every  pig  :  not  in  the  least  like  the  Devon  pigs  of  those  days, 
which,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  were  no  more  shapely  than  the  true 
Irish  greyhound  who  pays  Pat's  "  rint-"  for  him ;  or  than  the 
lanky  monsters  who  wallow  in  German  rivulets,  while  the 
village  swineherd,  beneath  a  shady  lime,  forgets  his  fleas  in  the 
melody  of  a  Jew's  harp — strange  mud-coloured  creatures,  four 
feet  high  and  four  inches  thick,  which  look  as  if  they  had  passed 
their  lives,  as  a  collar  of  Oxford  brawn  is  said  to  do,  between 
two  tight  boards.  Such  were  then  the  pigs  of  Devon  :  not  to 
be  compared  with  the  true  wild  descendant  of  Noah's  stock, 
high-withered,  furry,  grizzled,  game -flavoured  little  rooklers, 
whereof  many  a  sownder  still  grunted  about  Swinley  down  and 
Braunton  woods,  Clovelly  glens  and  Bursdon  moor.  Not  like 
these,  nor  like  the  tame  abomination  of  those  barbarous  times, 
was  Jack :  but  prophetic  in  face,  figure,  and  complexion,  of 
Fisher  Hobbs  and  the  triumphs  of  science.  A  Fisher  Hobbs' 
pig  of  twelve  stone,  on  his  hind-legs — that  was  what  he  was, 
and  nothing  else  ;  and  if  you  do  not  know,  reader,  what  a 
Fisher  Hobbs  is,  you  know  nothing  about  pigs,  and  deserve  no 
bacon  for  breakfast.  But  such  was  Jack.  The  same  plump  mul- 
berry complexion,  garnished  with  a  few  scattered  black  bristles ; 
the  same  sleek  skin,  looking  always  as  if  it  was  upon  the  point 
of  bursting  ;  the  same  little  toddling  legs  ;  the  same  dapper  bend 
in  the  small  of  the  back  ;  the  same  cracked  squeak ;  the  same 
low  upright  forehead,  and  tiny  eyes ;  the  same  round  self-satis- 
fied jowl ;  the  same  charming  sensitive  little  cocked  nose,  always 
on  the  look-out  for  a  savoury  smell, — and  yet  while  watching 
for  the  best,  contented  with  the  worst ;  a  pig  of  self-helpful 
and  serene  spirit,  as  Jack  was,  and  therefore,  like  him,  fatting 
fast  while  other  pigs'  ribs  are  staring  through  their  skins. 


168  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Such  was  Jack ;  and  lucky  it  was  for  him  that  such  he  was ; 
for  it  was  little  that  he  got  to  fat  him  at  Oxford,  in  days  when 
a  servitor  meant  really  a  servant-student ;  and  wistfully  that 
day  did  his  eyes,  led  by  his  nose,  survey  at  the  end  of  the  Ship 
Inn  passage  the  preparations  for  Amyas's  supper.  The  innkeeper 
was  a  friend  of  his ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  they  had  lived  within 
three  doors  of  each  other  all  their  lives  ;  and  next,  Jack  was 
quite  pleasant  company  enough,  beside  being  a  learned  man 
and  an  Oxford  scholar,  to  be  asked  in  now  and  then  to  the  inn- 
keeper's private  parlour,  when  there  were  no  gentlemen  there, 
to  crack  his  little  joke  and  tell  his  little  story,  sip  the  leavings 
of  the  guests'  sack,  and  sometimes  help  the  host  to  eat  the 
leavings  of  their  supper.  And  it  was,  perhaps,  with  some  such 
hope  that  Jack  trotted  off  rouad  the  corner  to  the  Ship  that 
very  afternoon ;  for  that  faithful  little  nose  of  his,  as  it  sniffed 
out  of  a  back  window  of  the  school,  had  given  him  warning  of 
Sabean  gales,  and  scents  of  Paradise,  from  the  inn  kitchen 
below ;  so  he  went  round,  and  asked  for  his  pot  of  small  ale 
(his  only  luxury),  and  stood  at  the  bar  to  drink  it ;  and  looked 
inward  with  his  little  twinkling  right  eye  and  sniffed  inward 
with  his  little  curling  right  nostril,  and  beheld,  in  the  kitchen 
beyond,  salad  in  stacks  and  faggots :  salad  of  lettuce,  salad  of 
cress  and  endive,  salad  of  boiled  coleworts,  salad  of  pickled 
coleworts,  salad  of  angelica,  salad  of  scurvy-wort,  and  seven 
salads  more;  for  potatoes  were  not  as  yet,  and  salads  were 
during  eight  months  of  the  year  the  only  vegetable.  And  on 
the  dresser,  and  before  the  fire,  whole  hecatombs  of  fragrant 
victims,  which  needed  neither  frankincense  nor  myrrh ;  Clovelly 
herrings  and  Torridge  salmon,  Exmoor  mutton  and  Stow  venison, 
stubble  geese  and  woodcocks,  curlew  and  snipe,  hams  of  Hamp- 
shire, chitterlings  of  Taunton,  and  botargos  of  Cadiz,  such  as 
Pantagrue  himself  might  have  devoured.  And  Jack  eyed  them, 
as  a  ragged  boy  eyes  the  cakes  in  a  pastrycook's  window ;  and 
thought  of  the  scraps  from  the  commoner's  dinner,  which  were 
his  wages  for  cleaning  out  the  hall ;  and  meditated  deeply  on 
the  unequal  distribution  of  human  bliss. 

"Ah,  Mr.  Brimblecombe  !"  said  the  host,  bustling  out  with 
knife  and  apron  to  cool  himself  in  the  passage.  "Here  are 
doings  !  Nine  gentlemen  to  supper!" 

"  Nine  !     Are  they  going  to  eat  all  that  V 

"  Well,  I  can't  say — that  Mr.  Amyas  is  as  good  as  three  to 
his  trencher :  but  still  there's  crumbs,  Mr.  Brimblecombe, 
crumbs ;  and  Waste  not  want  not  is  my  doctrine ;  so  you  and 


CHAP.  Via.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  169 

I  may  have  a  somewhat  to  stay  our  stomachs,  about  an  eight 
o'clock." 

"  Eight?"  said  Jack,  looking  wistfully  at  the  clock.  "  It's 
but  four  now.  Well,  it's  kind  of  you,  and  perhaps  I'll  look  in." 

"  Just  you  step  in  now,  and  look  to  this  venison.  There's 
a  breast !  you  may  lay  your  two  fingers  into  the  say  there,  and 
not  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  fat.  That's  Sir  Richard's  sending. 
He's  all  for  them  Leighs,  and  no  wonder,  they'm  brave  lads, 
surely ;  and  there's  a  saddle-o'-mutton  !  I  rode  twenty  miles 
for  mun  yesterday,  I  did,  over  beyond  Barnstaple ;  and  five  year 
old,  Mr.  John,  it  is,  if  ever  five  years  was  ;  and  not  a  tooth  to 
nnm's  head,  for  I  looked  to  that ;  and  smelt  all  the  way  home 
like  any  apple ;  and  if  it  don't  ate  so  soft  as  ever  was  scald 
cream,  never  you  call  me  Thomas  Burman." 

"  Humph  ! "  said  Jack.  "  And  that's  their  dinner.  Well, 
some  are  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  their  mouth." 

"  Some  be  born  with  roast  beef  in  their  mouths,  and  plum- 
pudding  in  their  pocket  to  take  away  the  taste  o'  mun  ;  and 
that's  better  than  empty  spunes,  eh  1" 

"  For  them  that  get  it,"  said  Jack.  "  But  for  them  that 
don't —  And  with  a  sigh  he  returned  to  his  small  ale,  and 
then  lingered  in  and  out  of  the  inn,  watching  the  dinner  as  it 
went  into  the  best  room,  where  the  guests  were  assembled. 

And  as  he  lounged  there,  Amyas  went  in,  and  saw  him,  and 
held  out  his  hand,  and  said — 

"  Hillo,  Jack  !  how  goes  the  world  1  How  you've  grown  !" 
and  passed  on; — what  had  Jack  Brimblecombe  to  do  with 
Rose  Salterne1? 

So  Jack  lingered  on,  hovering  around  the  fragrant  smell 
like  a  fly  round  a  honey-pot,  till  he  found  himself  invisibly 
attracted,  and  as  it  were  led  by  the  nose  out  of  the  passage  into 
the  adjoining  room,  and  to  that  side  of  the  room  where  there 
was  a  door ;  and  once  there  he  could  not  help  hearing  what 
passed  inside ;  till  Rose  Salterne's  name  fell  on  his  ear.  So, 
as  it  was  ordained,  he  was  taken  in  the  fact.  And  now  behold 
him  brought  in  red-hand  to  judgment,  not  without  a  kick  or 
two  from  the  wrathful  foot  of  Amyas  Leigh.  Whereat  there 
fell  on  him  a  storm  of  abuse,  which,  for  the  honour  of  that 
gallant  company,  I  shall  not  give  in  detail ;  but  which  abuse, 
strange  to  say,  seemed  to  have  no  effect  on  the  impenitent  and 
unabashed  Jack,  who,  as  soon  as  he  could  get  his  breath,  made 
answer  fiercely,  amid  much  puffing  and  blowing. 

"What  business  have  I  here1?     As  much  as  any  of  you. 


17U  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [cilAl>.  VIIL 

If  you  had  asked  me  in,  I  would  have  come  :  but  as  you  didn't, 
I  came  without  asking." 

"You  shameless  rascal !"  said  Gary.  "Come  if  you  were 
asked,  where  there  was  good  wine  1  I'll  warrant  you  for  that !" 

"  Why,"  said  Amyas,  "  no  lad  ever  had  a  cake  at  school 
but  he  would  dog  him  up  one  street  and  down  another  all  day 
for  the  crumbs,  the  trencher-scraping  spaniel !" 

"  Patience,  masters  !"  said  Frank.  "  That  Jack's  is  some- 
what of  a  gnathonic  and  parasitic  soul,  or  stomach,  all  Bideford 
apple-women  know  ;  but  I  suspect  more  than  Deus  Venter  has 
brought  him  hither." 

"Deus  eavesdropping,  then.  We  shall  have  the  whole 
story  over  the  town  by  to-morrow,"  said  another  ;  beginning  at 
that  thought  to  feel  somewhat  ashamed  of  his  late  enthusiasm. 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Frank !  You  were  always  the  only  one  that 
would  stand  up  for  me !  Deus  Venter,  quotha  ?  'Twas  Deus 
Cupid,  it  was  !" 

A  roar  of  laughter  followed  this  announcement. 

"  What  1"  asked  Frank ;  "  was  it  Cupid,  then,  who  sneezed 
approval  to  our  love,  Jack,  as  he  did  to  that  of  Dido  and 
JSneas  ?" 

But  Jack  went  on  desperately. 

"  I  was  in  the  next  room,  drinking  of  my  beer.  I  couldn't 
help  that,  could  1 ?  And  then  I  heard  her  name ;  and  I  couldn't 
help  listening  then.  Flesh  and  blood  couldn't." 

"Nor  fat  either!" 

"  No,  nor  fat,  Mr.  Gary.  Do  you  suppose  fat  men  haven't 
souls  to  be  saved  as  well  as  thin  ones,  and  hearts  to  burst,  too, 
as  well  as  stomachs  ?  Fat !  Fat  can  feel,  I  reckon,  as  well  as 
lean.  Do  you  suppose  there's  nought  inside  here  but  beer  V 

And  he  laid  his  hand,  as  Drayton  might  have  said,  on  that 
stout  bastion,  horn  work,  ravelin,  or  demilune,  which  formed  the 
outworks  to  the  citadel  of  his  purple  isle  of  man. 

"  Nought  but  beer? — Cheese,  I  suppose?" 

"Bread?" 

"Beef?" 

"  Love  !"  cried  Jack.  "  Yes,  Love  ! — Ay,  you  laugh  ;  but 
my  eyes  are  not  so  grown  up  with  fat  but  what  I  can  see  what's 
fair  as  well  as  you." 

"  Oh,  Jack,  naughty  Jack,  dost  thou  heap  sin  on  sin,  and 
luxury  on  gluttony  ?" 

"  Sin  ?  If  I  sin,  you  sin  :  I  tell  you,  and  I  don't  care  who 
knows  it,  I've  loved  her  these  three  years  as  well  as  e'er  a  one 


(.HAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  171 

of  you,  I  have.  I've  thought  o'  nothing  else,  prayed  for  nothing 
else,  God  forgive  me  !  And  then  you  laugh  at  me,  because  I'm 
a  poor  parson's  son,  and  you  fine  gentlemen  :  God  made  us  both, 
I  reckon.  You1? — you  make  a  deal  of  giving  her  up  to-day. 
Why,  it's  what  I've  done  for  three  miserable  years  as  ever  poor 
sinner  spent ;  ay,  from  the  first  day  I  said  to  myself,  '  Jack,  if 
you  can't  have  that  pearl,  you'll  have  none  ;  and  that  you  can't 
have,  for  it's  meat  for  your  masters  :  so  conquer  or  die.'  And 
I  couldn't  conquer.  I  can't  help  loving  her,  worshipping  her,  no 
more  than  you  ;  and  I  will  die  :  but  you  needn't  laugh  mean- 
while at  me  that  have  done  as  much  as  you,  and  will  do  again." 

"  It  is  the  old  tale,"  said  Frank  to  himself ;  "  whom  will  not 
love  transform  into  a  hero?" 

And  so  it  was.  Jack's  squeaking  voice  was  firm  and  manly, 
his  pig's  eyes  flashed  very  fire,  his  gestures  were  so  free  and 
earnest,  that  the  ungainliness  of  his  figure  was  forgotten  ;  and 
when  he  finished  with  a  violent  burst  of  tears,  Frank,  forgetting 
his  wounds,  sprang  up  and  caught  him  by  the  hand. 

"  John  Brimblecombe,  forgive  me  !  Gentlemen,  if  we  are 
gentlemen,  we  ought  to  ask  his  pardon.  Has  he  not  shown 
already  more  chivalry,  more  self-denial,  and  therefore  more 
true  love,  than  any  of  us  1  My  friends,  let  the  fierceness  of 
affection,  which  we  have  used  as  an  excuse  for  many  a  sin  of 
our  own,  excuse  his  listening  to  a  conversation  in  which  he 
well  deserved  to  bear  a  part." 

"  Ah,"  said  Jack,  "  you  make  me  one  of  your  brotherhood ; 
and  see  if  I  do  not  dare  to  suffer  as  much  as  any  of  you  !  You 
laugh  1  Do  you  fancy  none  can  use  a  sword  unless  he  has  a 
baker's  dozen  of  quarterings  in  his  arms,  or  that  Oxford  scholars 
know  only  how  to  handle  a  pen  ?" 

"  Let  us  try  his  metal,"  said  St.  Leger.  "Here's  my  sword, 
Jack  ;  draw,  Coffin  !  and  have  at  him." 

"Nonsense!"  said  Coffin,  looking  somewhat  disgusted  at 
the  notion  of  fighting  a  man  of  Jack's  rank  ;  but  Jack  caught 
at  the  weapon  offered  to  him. 

"  Give  me  a  buckler,  and  have  at  any  of  you  !" 

"  Here's  a  chair  bottom,"  cried  Gary ;  and  Jack,  seizing  it 
in  his  left,  flourished  his  sword  so  fiercely,  and  called  so  loudly 
to  Coffin  to  come  on,  that  all  present  found  it  necessary,  unless 
they  wished  blood  to  be  spilt,  to  turn  the  matter  off  with  a 
laugh  :  but  Jack  would  not  hear  of  it. 

"  Nay  :  if  you  will  let  me  be  of  your  brotherhood,  well  and 
good  :  but  if  not,  one  or  other  I  will  fight :  and  that's  flat." 


172  HOW  THE  NOBLE  BROTHERHOOD  [CHAP.  VIII. 

"  You  see,  gentlemen,"  said  Amyas,  "  we  must  admit  him 
or  die  the  death ;  so  we  needs  must  go  when  Sir  Urian  drives. 
Come  up,  Jack,  and  take  the  oaths.  You  admit  him,  gentle- 
men?" 

"  Let  me  but  be  your  chaplain,"  said  Jack,  "and  pray  for  your 
luck  when  you're  at  the  wars.  If  I  do  stay  at  home  in  a  country 
curacy,  'tis  not  much  that  you  need  be  jealous  of  me  with  her,  I 
reckon,"  said  Jack,  with  a  pathetical  glance  at  his  own  stomach. 

"  Sia  !"  said  Gary :  "  but  if  he  be  admitted,  it  must  be  done 
according  to  the  solemn  forms  and  ceremonies  in  such  cases  pro- 
vided. Take  him  into  the  next  room,  Amyas,  and  prepare  him 
for  his  initiation." 

"What's  that?"  asked  Amyas,  puzzled  by  the  word.  But 
judging  from  the  corner  of  Will's  eye  that  initiation  was  Latin 
for  a  practical  joke,  he  led  forth  his  victim  behind  the  arras 
again,  and  waited  five  minutes  while  the  room  was  being  dark- 
ened, till  Frank's  voice  called  to  him  to  bring  in  the  neophyte. 

"John  Brimblecombe,"  said  Frank  in  a  sepulchral  tone, 
"  you  cannot  be  ignorant,  as  a  scholar  and  bachelor  of  Oxford, 
of  that  dread  Sacrament  by  which  Catiline  bound  the  soul  of 
his  fellow-conspirators,  in  order  that  both  by  the  daring  of  the 
deed  he  might  have  proof  of  their  sincerity,  and  by  the  horror 
thereof  astringe  their  souls  by  adamantine  fetters,  and  Novem- 
Stygian  oaths,  to  that  wherefrom  hereafter  the  weakness  of  the 
flesh  might  shrink.  Wherefore,  0  Jack  !  we  too  have  deter- 
mined, following  that  ancient  and  classical  example,  to  fill,  as 
he  did,  a  bowl  with  the  life-blood  of  our  most  heroic  selves,  and 
to  pledge  each  other  therein,  with  vows  whereat  the  stars  shall 
tremble  in  their  spheres,  and  Luna,  blushing,  veil  her  silver 
cheeks.  Your  blood  alone  is  wanted  to  fill  up  the  goblet.  Sit 
down,  John  Brimblecombe,  and  bare  your  arm  !" 

"  But,  Mr.  Frank  ! "  said  Jack ;  who  was  as  super- 
stitious as  any  old  wife,  and,  what  with  the  darkness  and  the 
discourse,  already  in  a  cold  perspiration. 

"  But  me  no  buts  !  or  depart  as  recreant,  not  by  the  door 
like  a  man,  but  up  the  chimney  like  a  flittermouse." 

"But,  Mr.  Frank!" 

''  Thy  vital  juice,  or  the  chimney!  Choose!"  roared  Cary 
in  his  ear. 

"Well,  if  I  must,"  said  Jack;  "but  it's  desperate  hard 
that  because  you  can't  keep  faith  without  these  barbarous 
oaths,  I  must  take  them  too,  that  have  kept  faith  these  three 
years  without  any." 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF  THE  ROSE  WAS  FOUNDED.  173 

At  this  pathetic  appeal  Frank  nearly  melted  :  but  Amyas 
and  Gary  had  thrust  the  victim  into  a  chair  and  all  was  pre- 
pared for  the  sacrifice. 

"  Bind  his  eyes,  according  to  the  classic  fashion,"  said  Will. 

"Oh  no,  dear  Mr.  Gary;  I'll  shut  them  tight  enough,  I 
warrant :  but  not  with  your  dagger,  dear  Mr.  William — sure, 
not  with  your  dagger  ?  I  can't  afford  to  lose  blood,  though  I 
do  look  lusty — I  can't  indeed  ;  sure,  a  pin  would  do— I've  got 
one  here,  to  my  sleeve,  somewhere — Oh  !" 

"  See  the  fount  of  generous  juice  !  Flow  on,  fair  stream. 
How  he  bleeds  ! — pints,  quarts  !  Ah,  this  proves  him  to  be  in 
earnest !" 

"  A  true  lover's  blood  is  always  at  his  fingers'  ends." 

"  He  does  not  grudge  it ;  of  course  not.  Eh,  Jack  1  What 
matters  an  odd  gallon  for  her  sake  1" 

"  For  her  sake  ?  Nothing,  nothing  !  Take  my  life,  if  you 
will :  but — oh,  gentlemen,  a  surgeon,  if  you  love  me !  I'm 
going  off — I'm  fainting  !" 

"  Drink,  then,  quick ;  drink  and  swear !  Pat  his  back, 
Gary.  Courage,  man  !  it  will  be  over  in  a  minute.  Now, 
Frank ! " 

And  Frank  spoke — 

"  If  plighted  troth  I  fail,  or  secret  speech  reveal, 
May  Cocytean  ghosts  around  my  pillow  squeal ; 
While  Ate's  brazen  claws  distringe  my  spleen  in  sunder, 
And  drag  me  deep  to  Pluto's  keep,  'mid  brimstone,  smoke,  and  thunder  ! " 

"  Placetne,  domine  ?" 

"  Placet !"  squeaked  Jack,  who  thought  himself  at  the  last 
gasp,  and  gulped  down  full  three-quarters  of  the  goblet  which 
Gary  held  to  his  lips. 

"  Ugh — Ah — Puh  !     Mercy  on  us  !     It  tastes  mighty  like 
wine  !" 

"  A  proof,  my  virtuous  brother,"  said  Frank,  "  first,  of  thy 
abstemiousness,  which  has  thus  forgotten  what  wine  tastes 
like ;  and  next,  of  thy  pure  and  heroical  affection,  by  which 
thy  carnal  senses  being  exalted  to  a  higher  and  supra-lunar 
sphere,  like  those  Platonical  daemonizomenoi  and  enthusia- 
zomenoi  (of  whom  Jamblichus  says  that  they  were  insensible 
to  wounds  and  flame,  and  much  more,  therefore,  to  evil  savours), 
doth  make  even  the  most  nauseous  draught  redolent  of  that 
celestial  fragrance,  which  proceeding,  0  Jack !  from  thine  own 
inward  virtue,  assimilates  by  sympathy  even  outward  accidents 
unto  its  own  harmony  and  melody ;  for  fragrance  is,  as  has 


174  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAI-.  ix. 

been  said  well,  the  song  of  flowers,  and  sweetness,  the  music  of 
apples — Ahem  !  Go  in  peace,  thou  hast  conquered !" 

"  Put  him  out  of  the  door,  Will,"  said  Ainyas,  "  or  he  will 
swoon  on  our  hands." 

"Give  him  some  sack,"  said  Frank. 

"  Not  a  blessed  drop  of  yours,  sir,"  said  Jack.  "  I  like 
good  wine  as  well  as  any  man  on  earth,  and  see  as  little  of  it ; 
but  not  a  drop  of  yours,  sirs,  after  your  frumps  and  flouts  about 
hanging-on  and  trencher-scraping.  When  I  first  began  to  love 
her,  I  bid  good-bye  to  all  dirty  tricks ;  for  I  had  some  one  then 
for  whom  to  keep  myself  clean." 

And  so  Jack  was  sent  home,  with  a  pint  of  good  red  Alicant 
wine  in  him  (more,  poor  fellow,  than  he  had  tasted  at  once  in 
his  life  before) ;  while  the  rest,  in  high  glee  with  themselves 
and  the  rest  of  the  world,  relighted  the  candles,  had  a  right- 
merry  evening,  and  parted  like  good  friends  and  sensible  gentle- 
men of  Devon,  thinking  (all  except  Frank)  Jack  Brimblecombe 
and  his  vow  the  merriest  jest  they  had  heard  for  many  a  day. 
After  which  they  all  departed :  Amyas  and  Gary  to  Winter's 
squadron ;  Frank  (as  soon  .as  he  could  travel)  to  the  Court 
again ;  and  with  him  young  Basset,  whose  father  Sir  Arthur, 
being  in  London,  procured  for  him  a  page's  place  in  Leicester's 
household.  Fortescue  and  Chichester  went  to  their  brothers  in 
Dublin  ;  St.  Leger  to  his  uncle  the  Marshal  of  Munster ;  Coffin 
joined  Champernoun  and  Norris  in  the  Netherlands ;  and  so 
the  Brotherhood  of  the  Rose  was  scattered  far  and  wide,  and 
Mistress  Salterne  was  left  alone  with  her  looking-glass. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HOW  AMYAS   KEPT   HIS   CHRISTMAS   DAY. 

"  Take  aim,  you  noble  musqueteers, 
And  shoot  you  round  about ; 
Stand  to  it,  valiant  pikemen, 
And  we  shall  keep  them  out. 
There's  not  a  man  of  all  of  us 
A  foot  will  backward  flee  ; 
I'll  be  the  foremost  man  in  fight, 
Says  brave  Lord  Willoughby  ! " 

Elizabethan  Ballad. 

IT  was  the  blessed  Christmas  afternoon.  The  light  was  fading 
down ;  the  even-song  was  done ;  and  the  good  folks  of  Bideford 
were  trooping  home  in  merry  groups,  the  father  with  his 


CHAP,  ix.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  175 

children,  the  lover  with  his  sweetheart,  to  cakes  and  ale,  and 
flapdragons  and  mummer's  plays,  and  all  the  happy  sports  of 
Christmas  night.  One  lady  only,  wrapped  close  in  her  black 
muffler  and  followed  by  her  maid,  walked  swiftly,  yet  sadly, 
toward  the  long  causeway  and  bridge  which  led  to  Northam 
town.  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  and  his  wife  caught  her  up  and 
stopped  her  courteously. 

"You  will  come  home  with  us,  Mrs.  Leigh,"  said  Lady 
Grenvile,  "and  spend  a  pleasant  Christmas  night  ?" 

Mrs.  Leigh  smiled  sweetly,  and  laying  one  hand  on  Lady 
Grenvile's  arm,  pointed  with  the  other  to  the  westward,  and 
said — 

"  I  cannot  well  spend  a  merry  Christmas  night  while  that 
sound  is  in  my  ears." 

The  whole  party  around  looked  in  the  direction  in  which 
she  pointed.  Above  their  heads  the  soft  blue  sky  was  fading 
into  grey,  and  here  and  there  a  misty  star  peeped  out :  but  to 
the  westward,  where  the  downs  and  woods  of  Raleigh  closed  in 
with  those  of  Abbotsham,  the  blue  was  webbed  and  turfed  with 
delicate  white  flakes;  iridescent  spots,  marking  the  path  by 
which  the  sun  had  sunk,  showed  all  the  colours  of  the  dying 
dolphin  ;  and  low  on  the  horizon  lay  a  long  band  of  grassy 
green.  But  what  was  the  sound  which  troubled  Mrs.  Leigh  1 
None  of  them,  with  their  merry  hearts,  and  ears  dulled  with  the 
din  and  bustle  of  the  town,  had  heard  it  till  that  moment :  and 
yet  now — listen  !  It  was  dead  calm.  There  was  not  a  breath 
to  stir  a  blade  of  grass.  And  yet  the  air  was  full  of  sound,  a 
low  deep  roar  which  hovered  over  down  and  wood,  salt-marsh 
and  river,  like  the  roll  of  a  thousand  wheels,  the  tramp  of  end- 
less armies,  or — what  it  was — the  thunder  of  a  mighty  surge 
upon  the  boulders  of  the  pebble  ridge. 

"  The  ridge  is  noisy  to-night,"  said  Sir  Richard.  "  There 
has  been  wind  somewhere." 

"  There  is  wind  now,  where  my  boy  is,  God  help  him  !" 
said  Mrs.  Leigh  :  and  all  knew  that  she  spoke  truly.  The 
spirit  of  the  Atlantic  storm  had  sent  forward  the  token  of  his 
coming,  in  the  smooth  ground-swell  which  was  heard  inland, 
two  miles  away.  To-morrow  the  pebbles,  which  were  now 
rattling  down  with  each  retreating  wave,  might  be  leaping  to 
the  ridge  top,  and  hurled  like  round-shot  far  ashore  upon  the 
marsh  by  the  force  of  the  advancing  wave,  fleeing  before  the 
wrath  of  the  western  hurricane. 

"  God  help  my  boy  !"  said  Mrs.  Leigh  again. 


176  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

"  God  is  as  near  him  by  sea  as  by  land,"  said  good  Sir 
Richard. 

"  True  :  but  I  am  a  lone  mother ;  and  one  that  has  no  heart 
just  now  but  to  go  home  and  pray." 

And  so  Mrs.  Leigh  went  onward  up  the  lane,  and  spent  all 
that  night  in  listening  between  her  prayers  to  the  thunder  of 
the  surge,  till  it  was  drowned,  long  ere  the  sun  rose,  in  the 
thunder  of  the  storm. 

And  where  is  Amyas  on  this  same  Christmas  afternoon  ? 

Amyas  is  sitting  bareheaded  in  a  boat's  stern  in  Smerwick 
bay,  with  the  spray  whistling  through  his  curls,  as  he  shouts 
cheerfully — 

"  Pull,  and  with  a  will,  my  merry  men  all,  and  never  mind 
shipping  a  sea.  Cannon  balls  are  a  cargo  that  don't  spoil  by 
taking  salt-water." 

His  mother's  presage  has  been  true  enough.  Christmas 
eve  has  been  the  last  of  the  still,  dark,  steaming  nights  of  the 
early  winter;  and  the  western  gale  has  been  roaring  for  the 
last  twelve  hours  upon  the  Irish  coast. 

The  short  light  of  the  winter  day  is  fading  fast.  Behind 
him  is  a  leaping  line  of  billows  lashed  into  mist  by  the  tempest. 
Beside  him  green  foam-fringed  columns  are  rushing  up  the  black 
rocks,  and  falling  again  in  a  thousand  cataracts  of  snow.  Be- 
fore him  is  the  deep  and  sheltered  bay :  but  it  is  not  far  up  the 
bay  that  he  and  his  can  see ;  for  some  four  miles  out  at  sea 
begins  a  sloping  roof  of  thick  grey  cloud,  which  stretches  over 
their  heads,  and  up  and  far  away  inland,  cutting  the  cliffs  off 
at  mid-height,  hiding  all  the  Kerry  mountains,  and  darkening 
the  hollows  of  the  distant  firths  into  the  blackness  of  night. 
And  underneath  that  awful  roof  of  whirling  mist  the  storm  is 
howling  inland  ever,  sweeping  before  it  the  great  foam-sponges, 
and  the  grey  salt  spray,  till  all  the  land  is  hazy,  dim,  and  dun. 
Let  it  howl  on !  for  there  is  more  mist  than  ever  salt  spray 
made,  flying  before  that  gale  ;  more  thunder  than  ever  sea-surge 
wakened  echoing  among  the  cliffs  of  Smerwick  bay ;  along  those 
sand-hills  flash  in  the  evening  gloom  red  sparks  which  never 
came  from  heaven  ;  for  that  fort,  now  christened  by  the  invaders 
the  Fort  Del  Oro,  where  flaunts  the  hated  golden  flag  of  Spain, 
holds  San  Josepho  and  eight  hundred  of  the  foe ;  and  but  three 
nights  ago,  Amyas  and  Yeo,  and  the  rest  of  Winter's  shrewdest 
hands,  slung  four  culverins  out  of  the  Admiral's  main  deck,  and 
floated  them  ashore,  and  dragged  them  up  to  the  battery  among 
the  sand-hills ;  and  now  it  shall  be  seen  whether  Spanish  and 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  177 

Italian  condottieri  can  hold  their  own  on  British  ground  against 
the  men  of  Devon. 

Small  blame  to  Amyas  if  he  was  thinking,  not  of  his  lonely 
mother  at  Burrough  Court,  but  of  those  quick  bright  flashes  on 
sand-hill  and  on  fort,  where  Salvation  Yeo  was  hurling  the 
eighteen-ponnd  shot  with  deadly  aim,  and  watching  with  a  cool 
and  bitter  smile  of  triumph  the  flying  of  the  sand,  and  the 
crashing  of  the  gabions.  Amyas  and  his  party  had  been  on 
board,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives,  for  a  fresh  supply  of  shot ;  for 
Winter's  battery  was  out  of  ball,  and  had  been  firing  stones  for 
the  last  four  hours,  in  default  of  better  missiles.  They  ran  the 
boat  on  shore  through  the  surf,  where  a  cove  in  the  shore  made 
landing  possible,  and  almost  careless  whether  she  stove  or  not, 
scrambled  over  the  sand-hills  with  each  man  his  brace  of  shot 
slung  across  his  shoulder ;  and  Amyas,  leaping  into  the  trenches, 
shouted  cheerfully  to  Salvation  Yeo — 

"More  food  for  the  bull-dogs,  Gunner,  and  plums  for  the 
Spaniards'  Christmas  pudding !" 

"  Don't  speak  to  a  man  at  his  business,  Master  Amyas.  Five 
mortal  times  have  I  missed ;  but  I  will  have  that  accursed 
Popish  rag  down,  as  I'm  a  sinner." 

"Down  with  it,  then;  nobody  wants  you  to  shoot  crooked. 
Take  good  iron  to  it,  and  not  footy  paving-stones." 

"  I  believe,  sir,  that  the  foul  fiend  is  there,  a  turning  of  my 
shot  aside,  I  do.  I  thought  I  saw  him  once :  but,  thank  Heaven, 
here's  ball  again.  Ah,  sir,  if  one  could  but  cast  a  silver  one  ! 
Now,  stand  by,  men  !" 

And  once  again  Yeo's  eighteen-pounder  roared,  and  away. 
And,  oh  glory  !  the  great  yellow  flag  of  Spain,  which  streamed 
in  the  gale,  lifted  clean  into  the  air,  flagstaff  and  all,  and  then 
pitched  wildly  down  head-foremost,  far  to  leeward. 

A  hurrah  from  the  sailors,  answered  by  the  soldiers  of  the 
opposite  camp,  shook  the  very  cloud  above  them  :  but  ere  its 
echoes  had  died  away,  a  tall  officer  leapt  upon  the  parapet  of 
the  fort,  with  the  fallen  flag  in  his  hand,  and  rearing  it  as  well 
as  he  could  upon  his  lance  point,  held  it  firmly  against  the  gale, 
while  the  fallen  flagstaff  was  raised  again  within. 

In  a  moment  a  dozen  long  bows  were  bent  at  the  daring 
foeman :  but  Amyas  behind  shouted — 

"  Shame,  lads  !  Stop  and  let  the  gallant  gentleman  have 
due  courtesy !" 

So  they  stopped,  while  Amyas,  springing  on  the  rampart  of 
the  battery,  took  off  his  hat,  and  bowed  to  the  flag-holder,  who, 

N 


178  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

as  soon  as  relieved  of  his  charge,  returned  the  bow  courteously, 
and  descended. 

It  was  by  this  time  all  but  dark,  and  the  firing  began  to 
slacken  on  all  sides  ;  Salvation  and  his  brother  gunners,  having 
covered  up  their  slaughtering  tackle  with  tarpaulings,  retired 
for  the  night,  leaving  Amyas,  who  had  volunteered  to  take  the 
watch  till  midnight ;  and  the  rest  of  the  force  having  got  their 
scanty  supper  of  biscuit  (for  provisions  were  running  very  short) 
lay  down  under  arms  among  the  sand-hills,  and  grumbled  them- 
selves to  sleep. 

He  had  paced  up  and  down  in  the  gusty  darkness  for  some 
hour  or  more,  exchanging  a  passing  word  now  and  then  with  the 
sentinel,  when  two  men  entered  the  battery,  chatting  busily 
together.  One  was  in  complete  armour  ;  the  other  wrapped  in 
the  plain  short  cloak  of  a  man  of  pens  and  peace  :  but  the  talk 
of  both  was  neither  of  sieges  nor  of  sallies,  catapult,  bombard, 
nor  culverin,  but  simply  of  English  hexameters. 

And  fancy  not,  gentle  reader,  that  the  two  were  therein 
fiddling  while  Rome  was  burning ;  for  the  commonweal  of 
poetry  and  letters,  in  that  same  critical  year  1580,  was  in  far 
greater  danger  from  those  same  hexameters  than  the  common 
woe  of  Ireland  (as  Raleigh  called  it)  was  from  the  Spaniards. 

Imitating  the  classic  metres,  "  versifying,"  as  it  was  called 
in  contradistinction  to  rhyming,  was  becoming  fast  the  fashion 
among  the  more  learned.  Stonyhurst  and  others  had  tried  their 
hands  at  hexameter  translations  from  the  Latin  and  Greek  epics, 
which  seem  to  have  been  doggerel  enough ;  and  ever-  and  anon 
some  youthful  wit  broke  out  in  iambics,  sapphics,  elegiacs,  and 
what  not,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  queen's  English  and 
her  subjects'  ears. 

I  know  not  whether  Mr.  William  Webbe  had  yet  given  to 
the  world  any  fragments  of  his  precious  hints  for  the  "  Re- 
formation of  English  poetry,"  to  the  tune  of  his  own  "  Tityrus, 
happily  thou  liest  tumbling  under  a  beech-tree  : "  but  the  Cam- 
bridge Malvolio,  Gabriel  Harvey,  had  succeeded  in  arguing 
Spenser,  Dyer,  Sidney,  and  probably  Sidney's  sister,  and  the 
whole  clique  of  beaux-esprits  round  them,  into  following  his 
model  of 

' '  What  might  I  call  this  tree  ?     A  laurel  ?     0  bonny  laurel ! 
Needes  to  thy  bowes  will  I  bowe  this  knee,  and  vail  my  bonetto ; " 

after  snubbing  the  first  book  of  "  that  Elvish  Queene,"  which 
was  then  in  manuscript,  as  a  base  declension  from  the  classical 
to  the  romantic  school. 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  179 

And  now  Spenser  (perhaps  in  mere  melancholy  wilfulness 
and  want  of  purpose,  for  he  had  just  been  jilted  by  a  fair  maid 
of  Kent)  was  wasting  his  mighty  genius  upon  doggerel  which 
he  fancied  antique ;  and  some  piratical  publisher  (Bitter  Tom 
Nash  swears,  and  with  likelihood,  that  Harvey  did  it  himself) 
had  just  given  to  the  world, — "  Three  proper  wittie  and  familiar 
Letters,  lately  past  between  two  University  men,  touching  the 
Earthquake  in  April  last,  and  our  English  reformed  Versifying," 
which  had  set  all  town  wits  a-buzzing  like  a  swarm  of  flies, 
being  none  other  than  a  correspondence  between  Spenser  and 
Harvey,  which  was  to  prove  to  the  world  for  ever  the  correct- 
ness and  melody  of  such  lines  as, 

' '  For  like  magnificoes,  not  a  beck  but  glorious  in  show, 
In  deede  most  frivolous,  not  a  looke  but  Tuscanish  always." 

Let  them  pass — Alma  Mater  has  seen  as  bad  hexameters  since. 
But  then  the  matter  was  serious.  There  is  a  story  (I  know 
not  how  true),  that  Spenser  was  half  bullied  into  re-writing  the 
"  Fairy  Queen  "  in  hexameters,  had  not  Ealeigh,  a  true  roman- 
ticist, "  whose  vein  for  ditty  or  amorous  ode  was  most  lofty, 
insolent,  and  passionate,"  persuaded  him  to  follow  his  better 
genius.  The  great  dramatists  had  not  yet  arisen,  to  form  com- 
pletely that  truly  English  school,  of  which  Spenser,  unconscious 
of  his  own  vast  powers,  was  laying  the  foundation.  And,  indeed, 
it  was  not  till  Daniel,  twenty  years  after,  in  his  admirable 
apology  for  rhyme,  had  smashed  Mr.  Gampian  and  his  "  eight 
several  kinds  of  classical  numbers,"  that  the  matter  was  finally 
settled,  and  the  English  tongue  left  to  go  the  road  on  which 
Heaven  had  started  it.  So  that  we  may  excuse  Raleigh's 
answering  somewhat  waspish  to  some  quotation  of  Spenser's 
from  the  three  letters  of  "  Immerito  and  G.  H." 

"  Tut,  tut,  Colin  Clout,  much  learning  has  made  thee  mad. 
A  good  old  fishwives'  ballad  jingle  is  worth  all  your  sapphics 
and  trimeters,  and  '  riff-raff  thurlery  bouncing.'  Hey  1  have  I 
you  there,  old  lad1?  Do  you  mind  that  precious  verse1?" 

"But,  dear  Wat,  Homer  and  Virgil " 

"  But,  dear  Ned,  Petrarch  and  Ovid 

"  But,  Wat,  what  have  we  that  we  do  not  owe  to  the 
ancients  V 

11  Ancients,  quotha  ?  Why,  the  legend  of  King  Arthur,  and 
Chevy  Chase  too,  of  which  even  your  fellow-sinner  Sidney  can- 
not deny  that  every  time  he  hears  it  even  from  a  blind  fiddler 
it  stirs  his  heart  like  a  trumpet-blast.  Speak  well  of  the  bridge 


180  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

that  carries  you  over,  man  !  Did  you  find  your  Redcross  Knight 
in  Virgil,  or  such  a  dame  as  Una  in  old  Ovid  ?  No  more  than 
you  did  your  Pater  and  Credo,  you  renegado  baptized  heathen, 
you!" 

"  Yet,  surely,  our  younger  and  more  barbarous  taste  must 
bow  before  divine  antiquity,  and  imitate  afar 

"As  dottrels  do  fowlers.  If  Homer  was  blind,  lad,  why 
dost  not  poke  out  thine  eye?  Ay,  this  hexameter  is  of  an 
ancient  house,  truly,  Ned  Spenser,  and  so  is  many  a  rogue : 
but  he  cannot  make  way  on  ,our  rough  English  roads.  He  goes 
hopping  and  twitching  in  our  language  like  a  three-legged  terrier 
over  a  pebble-bank,  tumble  and  up  again,  rattle  and  crash." 

"  Nay,  hear,  now — 

'  See  ye  the  blindfolded  pretty  god  that  feathered  archer, 
Of  lovers'  miseries  which  maketh  his  bloody  game  ? ' 1 

True,  the  accent  gapes  in  places,  as  I  have  often  confessed  to 

Harvey,  but " 

"  Harvey  be  hanged  for  a  pedant,  and  the  whole  crew  of 
versifiers,  from  Lord  Dorset  (but  he,  poor  man,  has  been  past 
hanging  some  time  since)  to  yourself !  Why  delude  you  into 
playing  Procrustes  as  he  does  with  the  queen's  English,  racking 
one  word  till  its  joints  be  pulled  asunder,  and  squeezing  the 
next  all  a-heap  as  the  Inquisitors  do  heretics  in  their  banca 
cava  1  Out  upon  him  and  you,  and  Sidney,  and  the  whole  kin. 
You  have  not  made  a  verse  among  you,  and  never  will,  which 
is  not  as  lame  a  gosling  as  Harvey's  own — 

'  Oh  thou  weathercocke,  that  stands  on  the  top  of  Allhallows, 
Come  thy  ways  down,  if  thou  dar'st  for  thy  crown,  and  take  the  wall 
on  us.' 

"  Hark,  now !  There  is  our  young  giant  comforting  his  soul 
with  a  ballad.  You  will  hear  rhyme  and  reason  together  here, 
now.  He  will  not  miscall  'blind -folded,'  'blind- fold -ed,  I 
warrant;  or  make  an  'of  and  a  'which'  and  a  'his'  carry  a 
whole  verse  on  their  wretched  little  backs." 

And  as  he  spoke,  Amyas,  who  had  been  grumbling  to  him- 
self some  Christmas  carol,  broke  out  full-mouthed : — 

"  As  Joseph  was  a-walking 
He  heard  an  angel  sing — 
'  This  night  shall  be  the  birth  night 
Of  Christ,  our  heavenly  King. 

1  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  distich  is  Spenser's  own  ;  and  the  other 
hexameter*  are  all  authentic. 


CHAP,  ix.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  181 

His  birthbecl  shall  be  neither 
In  housen  nor  in  hall, 
Nor  in  the  place  of  paradise, 
But  in  the  oxen's  stall. 

He  neither  shall  be  rocked 
In  silver  nor  in  gold, 
But  in  the  wooden  manger 
That  lieth  on  the  mould. 

He  neither  shall  be  washen 
With  white  wine  nor  with  red, 
But  with  the  fair  spring  water 
That  on  you  shall  be  shed. 

He  neither  shall  be  clothed 
In  purple  nor  in  pall, 
But  in  the  fair  white  linen 
That  usen  babies  all.' 

As  Joseph  was  a- walk  ing 
Thus  did  the  angel  sing, 
And  Mary's  Son  at  midnight 
Was  born  to  be  our  King. 

Then  be  you  glad,  good  people, 
At  this  time  of  the  year  ; 
And  light  you  up  your  candles, 
For  His  star  it  shineth  clear." 

"  There,  Edmunde  Classicaster,"  said  Raleigh,  "  does  not 
that  simple  strain  go  nearer  to  the  heart  of  him  who  wrote 
'  The  Shepherd's  Calendar,'  than  all  artificial  and  outlandish 

'  Wote  ye  why  his  mother  with  a  veil  hath  covered  his  face?" 

Why  dost  not  answer,  man?" 

But  Spenser  was  silent  awhile,  and  then, — 

"Because  I  was  thinking  rather  of  the  rhymer  than  the 
rhyme.  Good  heaven  !  how  that  brave  lad  shames  me,  singing 
here  the  hymns  which  his  mother  taught  him,  before  the  very 
muzzles  of  Spanish  guns ;  instead  of  bewailing  unmanly,  as  I 
have  done,  the  love  which  he  held,  I  doubt  not,  as  dear  as  I 
did  even  my  Rosalind.  This  is  his  welcome  to  the  winter's 
storm ;  while  I,  who  dream,  forsooth,  of  heavenly  inspiration, 
can  but  see  therein  an  image  of  mine  own  cowardly  despair. 

'  Thou  barren  ground,  whom  Winter's  wrath  has  wasted, 
Art  made  a  mirror  to  behold  my  plight. ' l 

Pah !  away  with  frosts,  icicles,  and  tears,  and  sighs " 

"  And  with  hexameters  and  trimeters  too,  I  hope,"  inter- 
rupted Raleigh  :  "  and  all  the  trickeries  of  self-pleasing  sorrow." 

1   "  The  Shepherd's  Calendar." 


182  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

— I  will  set  my  heart  to  higher  work,  than  barking  at 
the  hand  which  chastens  me." 

"Wilt  put  the  lad  into  the  'Fairy  Queen,'  then,  by  my  side1? 
He  deserves  as  good  a  place  there,  believe  me,  as  ever  a  Guy  on, 
or  even  as  Lord  Grey  your  Arthegall.  Let  us  hail  him.  Hallo ! 
young  chanticleer  of  Devon  !  Art  not  afraid  of  a  chance  shot, 
that  thou  crowest  so  lustily  upon  thine  own  mixen  ?" 

"  Cocks  crow  all  night  long  at  Christmas,  Captain  Raleigh, 
and  so  do  I,"  said  Amyas's  cheerful  voice;  "but  who's  there 
with  you?" 

"A  penitent  pupil  of  yours — Mr.  Secretary  Spenser." 

"  Pupil  of  mine?"  said  Amyas.  "I  wish  he'd  teach  me  a 
little  of  his  art ;  I  could  fill  up  my  time  here  with  making 
verses." 

"And  who  would  be  your  theme,  fair  sir?"  said  Spenser. 

"  No  '  who '  at  all.  I  don't  want  to  make  sonnets  to  blue 
eyes,  nor  black  either :  but  if  I  could  put  down  some  of  the 
things  I  saw  in  the  Spice  Islands " 

"  Ah,"  said  Raleigh,  "  he  would  beat  you  out  of  Parnassus, 
Mr.  Secretary.  Remember,  you  may  write  about  Fairyland, 
but  he  has  seen  it." 

"  And  so  have  others,"  said  Spenser  ;  "  it  is  not  so  far  off 
from  any  one  of  us.  Wherever  is  love  and  loyalty,  great  pur- 
poses, and  lofty  souls,  even  though  in  a  hovel  or  a  mine,  there 
is  Fairyland." 

"  Then  Fairyland  should  be  here,  friend ;  for  you  represent 
love,  and  Leigh  loyalty ;  while,  as  for  great  purposes  and  lofty 
souls,  who  so  fit  to  stand  for  them  as  I,  being  (unless  my  enemies 
and  my  conscience  are  liars  both)  as  ambitious  and  as  proud  as 
Lucifer's  own  self1?" 

"Ah,  Walter,  Walter,  why  wilt  always  slander  thyself  thus1?" 

"  Slander  1  Tut. — I  do  but  give  the  world  a  fair  challenge, 
and  tell  it,  '  There — you  know  the  worst  of  me  :  come  on  and 
try  a  fall,  for  either  you  or  I  must  down.'  Slander  1  Ask  Leigh 
here,  who  has  but  known  me  a  fortnight,  whether  I  am  not  as 
vain  as  a  peacock,  as  selfish  as  a  fox,  as  imperious  as  a  bona  roba, 
and  ready  to  make  a  cat's  paw  of  him  or  any  man,  if  there  be  a 
chestnut  in  the  fire :  and  yet  the  poor  fool  cannot  help  loving 
me,  and  running  of  my  errands,  and  taking  all  my  schemes  and 
my  dreams  for  gospel ;  and  verily  believes  now,  I  think,  that  I 
shall  be  the  man  in  the  moon  some  day,  and  he  my  big  dog." 

"  Well,"  said  Amyas,  half  apologetically,  "  if  you  are  the 
cleverest  man  in  the  world  what  harm  in  my  thinking  so  ?" 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  183 

"  Hearken  to  him,  Edmund  !  He  will  know  better  when 
he  has  outgrown  this  same  callow  trick  of  honesty,  and  learnt 
of  the  great  goddess  Detraction  how  to  show  himself  wiser  than 
the  wise,  by  pointing  out  to  the  world  the  fool's  motley  which 
peeps  through  the  rents  in  the  philosopher's  cloak.  Go  to,  lad ! 
slander  thy  equals,  envy  thy  betters,  pray  for  an  eye  which  sees 
spots  in  every  sun,  and  for  a  vulture's  nose  to  scent  carrion  in 
every  rose-bed.  If  thy  friend  win  a  battle,  show  that  he  has 
needlessly  thrown  away  his  men  •  if  he  lose  one,  hint  that  he 
sold  it ;  if  he  rise  to  a  place  argue  favour ;  if  he  fall  from  one, 
argue  divine  justice.  Believe  nothing,  hope  nothing,  but  en- 
dure all  things,  even  to  kicking,  if  aught  may  be  got  thereby ; 
so  shalt  thou  be  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  sit  in  kings' 
palaces,  and  fare  sumptuously  every  day." 

"And  wake  with  Dives  in  the  torment,"  said  Amyas. 
"Thank  you  for  nothing,  Captain." 

"  Go  to,  Misanthropes,"  said  Spenser.  "  Thou  hast  not  yet 
tasted  the  sweets  of  this  world's  comfits,  and  thou  railest  at 
them  1" 

"  The  grapes  are  sour,  lad." 

"  And  will  be  to  the  end,"  said  Amyas,  "  if  they  come  off 
such  a  devil's  tree  as  that.  I  really  think  you  are  out  of  your 
mind,  Captain  Raleigh,  at  times." 

"  I  wish  I  were ;  for  it  is  a  troublesome,  hungry,  windy 
mind  as  man  ever  was  cursed  withal.  But  come  in,  lad.  We 
were  sent  from  the  Lord  Deputy  to  bid  thee  to  supper.  There 
is  a  dainty  lump  of  dead  horse  waiting  for  thee." 

"  Send  me  some  out,  then,"  said  matter-of-fact  Amyas. 
"  And  tell  his  Lordship  that,  with  his  good  leave,  I  don't  stir 
from  here  till  morning,  if  I  can  keep  awake.  There  is  a  stir  in 
the  fort,  and  I  expect  them  out  on  us." 

"  Tut,  man  !  their  hearts  are  broken.  We  know  it  by  their 
deserters." 

"  Seeing's  believing.  I  never  trust  runaway  rogues.  If 
they  are  false  to  their  masters,  they'll  be  false  to  us." 

"  Well,  go  thy  ways,  old  honesty  ;  and  Mr.  Secretary  shall 
give  you  a  book  to  yourself  in  the  '  Fairy  Queen ' — '  Sir  Mono- 
culus  or  the  Legend  of  Common  Sense,'  eh,  Edmund  ?" 

"  Monoculus  V 

"  Ay,  Single-eye,  my  prince  of  word-coiners — won't  that  fit? 
—  And  give  him  the  Cyclop's  head  for  a  device.  Heigho  ! 
They  may  laugh  that  win.  I  am  sick  of  this  Irish  work  ;  were 
it  not  for  the  chance  of  advancement  I'd  sooner  be  driving  a 


184  HOW  AMY  AS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

team  of  red  Devons  on  Dartsicle ;  and  now  I  am  angry  with 
the  dear  lad  because  he  is  not  sick  of  it  too.  What  a  plague 
business  has  he  to  be  paddling  up  and  down,  contentedly  doing 
his  duty,  like  any  city  watchman?  It  is  an  insult  to  the  mighty 
aspirations  of  our  nobler  hearts, — eh,  my  would-be  Ariosto  V 

"  Ah,  Kaleigh  !  you  can  afford  to  confess  yourself  less  than 
some,  for  you  are  greater  than  all.  Go  on  and  conquer,  noble 
heart !  But  as  for  me,  I  sow  the  wind,  and  I  suppose  I  shall 
reap  the  whirlwind." 

"Your  harvest  seems  come  already;  what  a  blast  that 
was  !  Hold  on  by  me,  Colin  Clout,  and  I'll  hold  on  by  thee. 
So  !  Don't  tread  on  that  pikeman's  stomach,  lest  he  take  thee 
for  a  marauding  Don,  and  with  sudden  dagger  slit  Colin's  pipe, 
and  Colin's  weasand  too." 

And  the  two  stumbled  away  into  the  darkness,  leaving 
Amyas  to  stride  up  and  down  as  before,  puzzling  his  brains 
over  Raleigh's  wild  words  and  Spenser's  melancholy,  till  he 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  some  mysterious  connec- 
tion between  cleverness  and  unhappiness,  and  thanking  his 
stars  that  he  was  neither  scholar,  courtier,  nor  poet,  said  grace 
over  his  lump  of  horseflesh  when  it  arrived,  devoured  it  as  if  it 
had  been  venison,  and  then  returned  to  his  pacing  up  and 
down  ;  but  this  time  in  silence,  for  the  night  was  drawing  on, 
and  there  was  no  need  to  tell  the  Spaniards  that  any  one  was 
awake  and  watching. 

So  he  began  to  think  about  his  mother,  and  how  she  might 
be  spending  her  Christmas  ;  and  then  about  Frank,  and  won- 
dered at  what  grand  Court  festival  he  was  assisting,  amid 
bright  lights  and  sweet  music  and  gay  ladies,  and  how  he  was 
dressed,  and  whether  he  thought  of  his  brother  there  far  away 
on  the  dark  Atlantic  shore ;  and  then  he  said  his  prayers  and 
his  creed ;  and  then  he  tried  not  to  think  of  Rose  Salterne,  and 
of  course  thought  about  her  all  the  more.  So  on  passed  the 
dull  hours,  till  it  might  be  past  eleven  o'clock,  and  all  lights 
were  out  in  the  battery  and  the  shipping,  and  there  was  no 
sound  of  living  thing  but  the  monotonous  tramp  of  the  two 
sentinels  beside  him,  and  now  and  then  a  grunt  from  the  party 
who  slept  under  arms  some  twenty  yards  to  the  rear. 

So  he  paced  to  and  fro,  looking  carefully  out  now  and  then 
over  the  strip  of  sand-hill  which  lay  between  him  and  the  fort ; 
but  all  was  blank  and  black,  and  moreover  it  began  to  rain 
furiously. 

Suddenly  he  seemed  to  hear   a  rustle  among  the  harsh 


CHAP.  IX.  J  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  185 

sand-grass.  True,  the  wind  was  whistling  through  it  loudly 
enough  :  but  that  sound  was  not  altogether  like  the  wind. 
Then  a  soft  sliding  noise  ;  something  had  slipped  down  a  bank, 
and  brought  the  sand  down  after  it.  Amyas  stopped,  crouched 
down  beside  a  gun,  and  laid  his  ear  to  the  rampart,  whereby 
he  heard  clearly,  as  he  thought,  the  noise  of  approaching  feet ; 
whether  rabbits  or  Christians,  he  knew  not :  but  he  shrewdly 
guessed  the  latter. 

Now  Amyas  was  of  a  sober  and  business-like  turn,  at  least 
when  he  was  not  in  a  passion ;  and  thinking  within  himself 
that  if  he  made  any  noise,  the  enemy  (whether  four  or  two- 
legged)  would  retire,  and  all  the  sport  be  lost,  he  did  not  call 
to  the  two  sentries,  who  were  at  the  opposite  ends  of  the 
battery  ;  neither  did  he  think  it  worth  while  to  rouse  the  sleep- 
ing company,  lest  his  ears  should  have  deceived  him,  and  the 
whole  camp  turn  out  to  repulse  the  attack  of  a  buck  rabbit. 
So  he  crouched  lower  and  lower  beside  the  culverin,  and  was 
rewarded  in  a  minute  or  two  by  hearing  something  gently 
deposited  against  the  mouth  of  the  embrasure,  which,  by  the 
noise,  should  be  a  piece  of  timber. 

"  So  far,  so  good,"  said  he  to  himself ;  "  when  the  scaling 
ladder  is  up,  the  soldier  follows,  I  suppose.  I  can  only  humbly 
thank  them  for  giving  my  embrasure  the  preference.  There  he 
comes  !  I  hear  his  feet  scuffling." 

He  could  hear  plainly  enough  some  one  working  himself 
into  the  mouth  of  the  embrasure :  but  the  plague  was,  that  it 
was  so  dark  that  he  could  not  see  his  hand  between  him  and 
the  sky,  much  less  his  foe  at  two  yards  off.  However,  he 
made  a  pretty  fair  guess  as  to  the  whereabouts,  and,  rising 
softly,  discharged  such  a  blow  downwards  as  would  have  split 
a  yule  log.  A  volley  of  sparks  flew  up  from  the  hapless 
Spaniard's  armour,  and  a  grunt  issued  from  within  it,  which 
proved  that,  whether  he  was  killed  or  not,  the  blow  had  not 
improved  his  respiration. 

Amyas  felt  for  his  head,  seized  it,  dragged  him  in  over  the 
gun,  sprang  into  the  embrasure  on  his  knees,  felt  for  the  top  of 
the  ladder,  found  it,  hove  it  clean  off  and  out,  with  four  or  five 
men  on  it,  and  then  of  course  tumbled  after  it  ten  feet  into  the 
sand,  roaring  like  a  town  bull  to  her  Majesty's  liege  subjects 
in  general. 

Sailor-fashion,  he  had  no  armour  on  but  a  light  morion  and 
a  cuirass,  so  he  was  not  too  much  encumbered  to  prevent  his 
springing  to  his  legs  instantly,  and  setting  to  work,  cutting 


186  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

ami  foining  right  and  left  at  every  sound,  for  sight  there  was 
none. 

Battles  (as  soldiers  know,  and  newspaper  editors  do  not) 
are  usually  fought,  not  as  they  ought  to  be  fought,  but  as  they 
can  be  fought ;  and  while  the  literary  man  is  laying  down  the 
law  at  his  desk  as  to  how  many  troops  should  be  moved  here, 
and  what  rivers  should  be  crossed  there,  and  where  the  cavalry 
should  have  been  brought  up,  and  when  the  flank  should  have 
been  turned,  the  wretched  man  who  has  to  do  the  work  finds 
the  matter  settled  for  him  by  pestilence,  want  of  shoes,  empty 
stomachs,  bad  roads,  heavy  rains,  hot  suns,  and  a  thousand 
other  stern  warriors  who  never  show  on  paper. 

So  with  this  skirmish  ;  "  according  to  Cocker,"  it  ought  to 
have  been  a  very  pretty  one ;  for  Hercules  of  Pisa,  who  planned 
the  sortie,  had  arranged  it  all  (being  a  very  sans-appel  in  all 
military  science)  upon  the  best  Italian  precedents,  and  had 
brought  against  this  very  hapless  battery  a  column  of  a  hundred 
to  attack  directly  in  front,  a  company  of  fifty  to  turn  the  right 
flank,  and  a  company  of  fifty  to  turn  the  left  flank,  with  regu- 
lations, orders,  passwords,  countersigns,  and  what  not ;  so  that 
if  every  man  had  had  his  rights  (as  seldom  happens),  Don 
Guzman  Maria  Magdalena  de  Soto,  who  commanded  the  sortie, 
ought  to  have  taken  the  work  out  of  hand,  and  annihilated  all 
therein.  But  alas !  here  stern  fate  interfered.  They  had 
chosen  a  dark  night,  as  was  politic ;  they  had  waited  till  the 
moon  was  up,  lest  it  should  be  too  dark,  as  was  politic  like- 
wise :  but,  just  as  they  had  started,  on  came  a  heavy  squall  of 
rain,  through  which  seven  moons  would  have  given  no  light,  and 
which  washed  out  the  plans  of  Hercules  of  Pisa  as  if  they  had 
been  written  on  a  schoolboy's  slate.  The  company  who  were 
to  turn  the  left  flank  walked  manfully  down  into  the  sea,  and 
never  found  out  where  they  were  going  till  they  were  knee- 
deep  in  water.  The  company  who  were  to  turn  the  right  flank, 
bewildered  by  the  utter  darkness,  turned  their  own  flank  so 
often,  that  tired  of  falling  into  rabbit-burrows  and  filling  their 
mouths  with  sand,  they  halted  and  prayed  to  all  the  saints  for 
a  compass  and  lantern ;  while  the  centre  body,  who  held 
straight  on  by  a  trackway  to  within  fifty  yards  of  the  battery, 
so  miscalculated  that  short  distance,  that  while  they  thought 
the  ditch  two  pikes'  length  off,  they  fell  into  it  one  over  the 
other,  and  of  six  scaling  ladders,  the  only  one  which  could  be 
found  was  the  very  one  which  Amyas  threw  down  again. 
After  which  the  clouds  broke,  the  wind  shifted,  and  the  moon 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  187 

shone  out  merrily.  And  so  was  the  deep  policy  of  Hercules  of 
Pisa,  on  which  hung  the  fate  of  Ireland  and  the  Papacy,  decided 
by  a  ten  minutes'  squall. 

But  where  is  Amyas  ? 

In  the  ditch,  aware  that  the  enemy  is  tumbling  into  it,  but 
unable  to  find  them ;  while  the  company  above,  finding  it  much 
too  dark  to  attempt  a  counter  sortie,  have  opened  a  smart  fire 
of  musketry  and  arrows  on  things  in  general,  whereat  the 
Spaniards  are  swearing  like  Spaniards  (I  need  say  no  more),  and 
the  Italians  spitting  like  venomous  cats ;  while  Amyas,  not 
wishing  to  be  riddled  by  friendly  balls,  has  got  his  back  against 
the  foot  of  the  rampart,  and  waits  on  Providence. 

Suddenly  the  moon  clears ;  and  with  one  more  fierce  volley, 
the  English  sailors,  seeing  the  confusion,  leap  down  from  the 
embrasures,  -and  to  it  pell-mell.  Whether  this  also  was 
"  according  to  Cocker,"  I  know  not :  but  the  sailor,  then  as 
now,  is  not  susceptible  of  highly-finished  drill. 

Amyas  is  now  in  his  element,  and  so  are  the  brave  fellows 
at  his  heels;  and  there  are  ten  breathless,  furious  minutes 
among  the  sand-hills  ;  and  then  the  trumpets  blow  a  recall,  and 
the  sailors  drop  back  again  by  twos  and  threes,  and  are  helped  up 
into  the  embrasures  over  many  a  dead  and  dying  foe ;  while  the 
guns  of  Fort  del  Oro  open  on  them,  and  blaze  away  for  half-an- 
hour  without  reply ;  and  then  all  is  still  once  more.  And  in 
the  meanwhile,  the  sortie  against  the  Deputy's  camp  has  fared 
no  better,  and  the  victory  of  the  night  remains  with  the  English. 

Twenty  minutes  after,  Winter  and  the  captains  who  were 
on  shore  were  drying  themselves  round  a  peat-fire  on  the  beach, 
and  talking  over  the  skirmish,  when  Will  Gary  asked — 

"  Where  is  Leigh  1  who  has  seen  him  ?  I  am  sadly  afraid 
he  has  gone  too  far,  and  been  slain." 

"Slain  ?  Never  less,  gentlemen  !"  replied  the  voice  of  the 
very  person  in  question,  as  he  stalked  out  of  the  darkness  into 
the  glare  of  the  fire,  and  shot  down  from  his  shoulders  into  the 
midst  of  the  ring,  as  he  might  a  sack  of  corn,  a  huge  dark  body, 
which  was  gradually  seen  to  be  a  man  in  rich  armour ;  who 
being  so  shot  down,  lay  quietly  where  he  was  dropped,  with  his 
feet  (luckily  for  him  mailed)  in  the  fire. 

"  I  say,"  quoth  Amyas,  "  some  of  you  had  better  take  him 
up,  if  he  is  to  be  of  any  use.  Unlace  his  helm,  Will  Gary." 

"  Pull  his  feet  out  of  the  embers ;  I  dare  say  he  would  have 
been  glad  enough  to  put  us  to  the  scarpines ;  but  that's  no 
reason  we  should  put  him  to  them." 


188  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

As  has  been  hinted,  there  was  110  love  lost  between  Admiral 
Winter  and  Amyas  ;  and  Amyas  might  certainly  have  reported 
himself  in  a  more  ceremonious  manner.  So  Winter,  whom 
Amyas  either  had  not  seen,  or  had  not  chosen  to  see,  asked  him 
pretty  sharply,  "  What  the  plague  he  had  to  do  with  bringing 
dead  men  into  camp  ?" 

"  If  he's  dead,  it's  not  my  fault.  He  was  alive  enough  when 
I  started  with  him,  and  I  kept  him  right  end  uppermost  all  the 
way ;  and  what  would  you  have  more,  sir  ?" 

"  Mr.  Leigh  !"  said  Winter,  "  it  behoves  you  to  speak  with 
somewhat  more  courtesy,  if  not  respect,  to  captains  who  are 
your  elders  and  commanders." 

"  Ask  your  pardon,  sir,"  said  the  giant,  as  he  stood  in  front 
of  the  fire  with  the  rain  steaming  and  smoking  off  his  armour ; 
"  but  I  was  bred  in  a  school  where  getting  good  service  done 
was  more  esteemed  than  making  fine  speeches." 

"  Whatsoever  school  you  were  trained  in,  sir,"  said  Winter, 
nettled  at  the  hint  about  Drake ;  "  it  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  one  in  which  you  learned  to  obey  orders.  Why  did  you 
not  come  in  when  the  recall  was  sounded  ?" 

"  Because,"  said  Amyas,  very  coolly,  "  in  the  first  place,  I 
did  not  hear  it ;  and  in  the  next,  in  my  school  I  was  taught 
when  I  had  once  started  not  to  come  home  empty-handed." 

This  was  too  pointed ;  and  Winter  sprang  up  with  an  oath 
— "  Do  you  mean  to  insult  me,  sir  ?" 

"  I  am  sorry,  sir,  that  you  should  take  a  compliment  to  Sir 
Francis  Drake  as  an  insult  to  yourself.  I  brought  in  this 
gentleman  because  I  thought  he  might  give  you  good  informa- 
tion ;  if  he  dies  meanwhile,  the  loss  will  be  yours,  or  rather  the 
queen's." 

"  Help  me,  then,"  said  Gary,  glad  to  create  a  diversion  in 
Amyas's  favour,  "  and  we  will  bring  him  round  ;"  while  Kaleigh 
rose,  and  catching  Winter's  arm,  drew  him  aside,  and  began 
talking  earnestly. 

"  What  a  murrain  have  you,  Leigh,  to  quarrel  with  Winter  1" 
asked  two  or  three. 

"  I  say,  my  reverend  fathers  and  dear  children,  do  get  the 
Don's  talking  tackle  free  again,  and  leave  me  and  the  Admiral 
to  settle  it  our  own  way." 

There  was  more  than  one  captain  sitting  in  the  ring :  but 
discipline,  and  the  degrees  of  rank,  were  not  so  severely  defined 
as  now;  and  Amyas,  as  a  "gentleman  adventurer,"  was,  on 
land,  in  a  position  very  difficult  to  be  settled,  though  at  sea  he 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  189 

was  as  liable  to  be  hanged  as  any  other  person  on  board ;  and 
on  the  whole  it  was  found  expedient  to  patch  the  matter  up. 
So  Captain  Raleigh  returning,  said  that  though  Admiral  Winter 
had  doubtless  taken  umbrage  at  certain  words  of  Mr.  Leigh's, 
yet  that  he  had  no  doubt  that  Mr.  Leigh  meant  nothing  thereby 
but  what  was  consistent  with  the  profession  of  a  soldier  and  a 
gentleman,  and  worthy  both  of  himself  and  of  the  Admiral. 

From  which  proposition  Amy  as  found  it  impossible  to  dis- 
sent ;  whereon  Raleigh  went  back,  and  informed  Winter  that 
Leigh  had  freely  retracted  his  words,  and  fully  wiped  off  any 
imputation  which  Mr.  Winter  might  conceive  to  have  been  put 
upon  him,  and  so  forth.  So  Winter  returned,  and  Amyas  said 
frankly  enough — 

"  Admiral  Winter,  I  hope,  as  a  loyal  soldier,  that  you  will 
understand  thus  far ;  that  naught  which  has  passed  to-night 
shall  in  any  way  prevent  you  finding  me  a  forward  and  obedient 
servant  to  all  your  commands,  be  they  what  they  may,  and  a 
supporter  of  your  authority  among  the  men,  and  honour  against 
the  foe,  even  with  my  life.  For  I  should  be  ashamed  if  private 
differences  should  ever  prejudice  by  a  grain  the  public  weal." 

This  was  a  great  effort  of  oratory  for  Amyas  ;  and  he  there- 
fore, in  order  to  be  safe  by  following  precedent,  tried  to  talk  as 
much  as  he  could  like  Sir  Richard  Grenvile.  Of  course  Winter 
could  answer  nothing  to  it,  in  spite  of  the  plain  hint  of  private 
differences,  but  that  he  should  not  fail  to  show  himself  a  captain 
worthy  of  so  valiant  and  trusty  a  gentleman ;  whereon  the  whole 
party  turned  their  attention  to  the  captive,  who,  thanks  to  Will 
Gary,  was  by  this  time  sitting  up,  standing  much  in  need  of  a 
handkerchief,  and  looking  about  him,  having  been  uuhelnied,  in 
a  confused  and  doleful  manner. 

"  Take  the  gentleman  to  my  tent,"  said  Winter,  "  and  let 
the  surgeon  see  to  him.  Mr.  Leigh,  who  is  he  1 " 

"  An  enemy,  but  whether  Spaniard  or  Italian  I  know  not ; 
but  he  seemed  somebody  among  them,  I  thought  the  captain  of 
a  company.  He  and  I  cut  at  each  other  twice  or  thrice  at  first, 
and  then  lost  each  other ;  and  after  that  I  came  on  him  among 
the  sand-hills,  trying  to  rally  his  men,  and  swearing  like  the 
mouth  of  the  pit,  whereby  I  guess  him  a  Spaniard.  But  his 
men  ran  ;  so  I  brought  him  in." 

"  And  how?"  asked  Raleigh.  " Thou  art  giving  us  all  the 
play  but  the  murders  and  the  marriages." 

"Why,  I  bid  him  yield,  and  he  would  not.  Then  I  bid  him 
run,  and  he  would  not.  And  it  was  too  pitch-dark  for  fighting ; 


190  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  I3C 

so  I  took  him  by  the  ears,  and  shook  the  wind  out  of  him,  and 
so  brought  him  in." 

"Shook  the  wind  out  of  him?"  cried  Gary,  amid  the  roar 
of  laughter  which  followed.  *'  Dost  know  thou  hast  nearly 
wrung  his  neck  in  two  1  His  vizor  was  full  of  blood." 

"  He  should  have  run  or  yielded,  then,"  said  Amyas  ;  and 
getting  up,  slipped  off  to  find  some  ale,  and  then  to  sleep  comfort- 
ably in  a  dry  burrow  which  he  scratched  out  of  a  sandbank 

The  next  morning,  as  Amyas  was  discussing  a  scanty  break- 
fast of  biscuit  (for  provisions  were  running  very  short  in  camp) 
Raleigh  came  up  to  him. 

"  What,  eating  1     That's  more  than  I  have  done  to-day." 

"  Sit  down,  and  share,  then." 

"  Nay,  lad,  I  did  not  come  a-begging  I  have  set  some  of 
my  rogues  to  dig  rabbits ;  but  as  I  live,  young  Colbrand,  you 
may  thank  your  stars  that  you  are  alive  to-day  to  eat.  Poor 
young  Cheek — Sir  John  Cheek,  the  grammarian's  son- — -got  his 
quittance  last  night  by  a  Spanish  pike,  rushing  headlong  on, 
just  as  you  did.  But  have  you  seen  your  prisoner1?" 

"  No  ;  nor  shall,  while  he  is  in  Winter's  tent." 

"  Why  not,  then  1  What  quarrel  have  you  against  the 
Admiral,  friend  Bobadil  1  Cannot  you  let  Francis  Drake  fight 
his  own  battles,  without  thrusting  your  head  in  between  them  ?" 

"  Well,  that  is  good !  As  if  the  quarrel  was  not  just  as 
much  mine,  and  every  man's  in  the  ship.  Why,  when  he  left 
Drake,  he  left  us  all,  did  he  not  ?" 

"  And  what  if  he  did  ?  Let  bygones  be  bygones  is  the  rule 
of  a  Christian,  and  of  a  wise  man  too,  Amyas.  Here  the  man 
is,  at  least,  safe  home,  in  favour  and  in  power ;  and  a  prudent 
youth  will  just  hold  his  tongue,  mum  chance,  and  swim  with 
the  stream." 

"  But  that's  just  what  makes  me  mad ;  to  see  this  fellow, 
after  deserting  us  there  in  unknown  seas,  win  credit  and  rank  at 
home  here  for  being  the  first  man  who  ever  sailed  back  through 
the  Straits.  What  had  he  to  do  with  sailing  back  at  all !  As 
well  make  the  fox  a  knight  for  being  the  first  that  ever  jumped 
down  a  jakes  to  escape  the  hounds.  The  fiercer  the  flight  the 
fouler  the  fear,  say  I." 

"  Amyas  !  Amyas  !  thou  art  a  hard  hitter,  but  a  soft  poli- 
tician." 

"  I  am  no  politician,  Captain  Raleigh,  nor  ever  wish  to  be. 
An  honest  man's  my  friend,  and  a  rogue's  my  foe ;  and  I'll  tell 
both  as  much,  as  long  as  I  breathe." 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  191 

"  And  die  a  poor  saiut,"  said  Raleigh,  laughing.  "  But  if 
Winter  invites  you  to  his  tent  himself, you  won't  refuse  to  cornel" 

"  Why,  no,  considering  his  years  and  rank ;  but  he  knows 
too  well  to  do  that." 

"  He  knows  too  well  not  to  do  it,"  said  Raleigh,  laughing  as 
he  walked  away.  And  verily  in  half-an-hour  came  an  invitation, 
extracted,  of  course,  from  the  Admiral  by  Raleigh's  silver  tongue, 
which  Amyas  could  not  but  obey. 

"  We  all  owe  you  thanks  for  last  night's  service,  sir,"  said 
Winter,  who  had  for  some  good  reasons  changed  his  tone.  "  Your 
prisoner  is  found  to  be  a  gentleman  of  birth  and  experience,  and 
the  leader  of  the  assault  last  night.  He  has  already  told  us 
more  than  we  had  hoped,  for  which  also  we  are  beholden  to  you ; 
and,  indeed  my  Lord  Grey  has  been  asking  for  you  already." 

"I  have,  young  sir,"  said  a  quiet  and  lofty  voice;  and 
Amyas  saw  limping  from  the  inner  tent  the  proud  and  stately 
figure  of  the  stern  Deputy,  Lord  Grey  of  Wilton,  a  brave  and 
wise  man,  but  with  a  naturally  harsh  temper,  which  had  been 
soured  still  more  by  the  wound  which  had  crippled  him,  while 
yet  a  boy,  at  the  battle  of  Leith.  He  owed  that  limp  to  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots ;  and  he  did  not  forget  the  debt. 

"  I  have  been  asking  for  you ;  having  heard  from  many, 
both  of  your  last  night's  prowess,  and  of  your  conduct  and  cour- 
age beyond  the  promise  of  your  years,  displayed  in  that  ever- 
memorable  voyage,  which  may  well  be  ranked  with  the  deeds 
of  the  ancient  Argonauts." 

Amyas  bowed  low ;  and  the  Lord  Deputy  went  on,  "  You 
will  needs  wish  to  see  your  prisoner.  You  will  find  him  such 
a  one  as  you  need  not  be  ashamed  to  have  taken,  and  as  need 
not  be  ashamed  to  have  been  taken  by  you :  but  here  he  is,  and 
will,  I  doubt  not,  answer  as  much  for  himself.  Know  each 
other  better,  gentlemen  both  :  last  night  was  an  ill  one  for 
making  acquaintances.  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena  Soto- 
mayor  de  Soto,  know  the  hidalgo,  Amyas  Leigh  ! " 

As  he  spoke,  the  Spaniard  came  forward,  still  in  his  armour, 
all  save  his  head,  which  was  bound  up  in  a  handkerchief. 

He  was  an  exceedingly  tall  and  graceful  personage,  of  that 
sangre  azul  which  marked  high  Visi-gothic  descent ;  golden- 
haired  and  fair- skinned,  with  hands  as  small  and  white  as  a 
woman's ;  his  lips  were  delicate,  but  thin,  and  compressed 
closely  at  the  corners  of  the  mouth  ;  and  his  pale  blue  eye  had 
a  glassy  duluess.  In  spite  of  his  beauty  and  his  carriage,  Ainyas 
shrank  from  him  instinctively ;  and  yet  he  could  not  help  hold- 


192  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

ing  out  his  hand  in  return,  as  the  Spaniard  holding  out  his,  said 
languidly,  in  most  sweet  and  sonorous  Spanish — 

"  I  kiss  his  hands  and  feet.  The  Seiior  speaks,  I  am  told, 
my  native  tongue?" 

"  I  have  that  honour." 

"  Then  accept  in  it  (for  I  can  better  express  myself  therein 
than  in  English,  though  I  am  not  altogether  ignorant  of  that 
witty  and  learned  language)  the  expression  of  my  pleasure  at 
having  fallen  into  the  hands  of  one  so  renowned  in  war  and 
travel ;  and  of  one  also,"  he  added,  glancing  at  Amyas's  giant 
bulk,  "  the  vastness  of  whose  strength,  beyond  that  of  common 
mortality,  makes  it  no  more  shame  for  me  to  have  been  over- 
powered and  carried  away  by  him  than  if  my  captor  had  been 
a  paladin  of  Charlemagne's." 

Honest  Amyas  bowed  and  stammered,  a  little  thrown  off 
his  balance  by  the  unexpected  assurance  and  cool  flattery  of  his 
prisoner ;  but  he  said, — 

"  If  you  are  satisfied,  illustrious  Seiior,  I  am  bound  to  be 
so.  I  only  trust,  that  in  my  hurry  and  the  darkness,  I  have 
not  hurt  you  unnecessarily." 

The  Don  laughed  a  pretty  little  hollow  laugh  :  "  No,  kind 
Senor,  my  head,  I  trust,  will  after  a  few  days  have  become 
united  to  my  shoulders;  and,  for  the  present,  your  company 
will  make  me  forget  any  slight  discomfort." 

"  Pardon  me,  Senor ;  but  by  this  daylight  I  should  have 
seen  that  armour  before." 

"I  doubt  it  not,  Senor,  as  having  been  yourself  also  in 
the  forefront  of  the  battle,"  said  the  Spaniard,  with  a  proud 
smile. 

"If  I  am  right,  Senor,  you  are  he  who  yesterday  held  up 
the  standard  after  it  was  shot  down." 

"  I  do  not  deny  that  undeserved  honour ;  and  I  have  to 
thank  the  courtesy  of  you  and  your  countrymen  for  having  per- 
mitted me  to  do  so  with  impunity." 

"  Ah,  I  heard  of  that  brave  feat,"  said  the  Lord  Deputy. 
"  You  should  consider  yourself,  Mr.  Leigh,  honoured  by  being 
enabled  to  show  courtesy  to  such  a  warrior." 

How  long  this  interchange  of  solemn  compliments,  of  which 
Amyas  was  getting  somewhat  weary,  would  have  gone  on,  I 
know  not :  but  at  that  moment  Raleigh  entered  hastily — 

"My  Lord,  they  have  hung  out  a  white  flag,  and  are  calling 
for  a  parley  !" 

The  Spaniard  turned  pale,  and  felt  for  his  sword,  which 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  193 

was  gone ;  and  then,  with  a  bitter  laugh,  murmured  to  himself 
— "As  I  expected." 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  hear  it.  Would  to  Heaven  they  had 
simply  fought  it  out!"  said  Lord  Grey  half  to  himself;  and 
then,  "  Go,  Captain  Raleigh,  and  answer  them  that  (saving  this 
gentleman's  presence)  the  laws  of  war  forbid  a  parley  with  any 
who  are  leagued  with  rebels  against  their  lawful  sovereign." 

"But  what  if  they  wish  to  treat  for  this  gentleman's  ransom1?" 

"  For  their  own,  more  likely,"  said  the  Spaniard ;  "  but 
tell  them,  on  my  part,  Seiior,  that  Don  Guzman  refuses  to  be 
ransomed  ;  and  will  return  to  no  camp  where  the  commanding 
officer,  unable  to  infect  his  captains  with  his  own  cowardice, 
dishonours  them  against  their  will." 

"You  speak  sharply,  Senor,"  said  Winter,  after  Raleigh 
had  gone  out. 

"  I  have  reason,  Senor  Admiral,  as  you  will  find,  I  fear,  ere 
long." 

"  We  shall  have  the  honour  of  leaving  you  here,  for  the 
present,  sir,  as  Admiral  Winter's  guest,"  said  the  Lord  Deputy. 

"  But  not  my  sword,  it  seems." 

"  Pardon  me,  Senor ;  but  no  one  has  deprived  you  of  your 
sword,"  said  Winter. 

"  I  don't  wish  to  pain  you,  sir,"  said  Amyas,  "  but  I  fear 
that  we  were  both  careless  enough  to  leave  it  behind  last  night." 

A  flash  passed  over  the  Spaniard's  face,  which  disclosed 
terrible  depths  of  fury  and  hatred  beneath  that  quiet  mask,  as 
the  summer  lightning  displays  the  black  abysses  of  the  thunder- 
storm ;  but  like  the  summer  lightning  it  passed  almost  unseen ; 
and  blandly  as  ever,  he  answered — 

"  I  can  forgive  you  for  such  a  neglect,  most  valiant  sir, 
more  easily  than  I  can  forgive  myself.  Farewell,  sir !  One 
who  has  lost  his  sword  is  no  fit  company  for  you."  And  as 
Amyas  and  the  rest  departed  he  plunged  into  the  inner  tent, 
stamping  and  writhing,  gnawing  his  hands  with  rage  and  shame. 

As  Amyas  came  out  on  the  battery,  Yeo  hailed  him — 

"  Master  Amyas  !  Hillo,  sir  !  For  the  love  of  Heaven 
tell  me!" 

"  What  then  V 

"  Is  his  Lordship  staunch  ]  Will  he  do  the  Lord's  work 
faithfully,  root  and  branch  :  or  will  he  spare  the  Amalekites?" 

"The  latter,  I  think,  old  hip-and-thigh,"  said  Amyas,  hurry- 
ing forward  to  hear  the  news  from  Raleigh,  who  appeared  in 
sight  once  more. 

o 


194  HOW  AMY  AS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

"  They  ask  to  depart  with  bag  and  baggage,"  said  he,  when 
he  came  up. 

"  God  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if  they  cany  away  a 
straw  !"  said  Lord  Grey.  "  Make  short  work  of  it,  sir  !" 

"  I  do  not  know  how  that  will  be,  my  Lord ;  as  I  came  up 
a  captain  shouted  to  me  oif  the  walls  that  there  were  mutineers ; 
and,  denying  that  he  surrendered,  would  have  pulled  down  the 
flag  of  truce,  but  the  soldiers  beat  him  off." 

"  A  house  divided  against  itself  will  not  stand  long,  gentle- 
men. Tell  them  that  I  give  no  conditions.  Let  them  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  trust  in  the  Bishop  of  Rome  who  sent 
them  hither,  and  may  come  to  save  them  if  he  wants  them. 
Gunners,  if  you  see  the  white  flag  go  down,  open  your  fire  in- 
stantly. Captain  Raleigh,  we  need  your  counsel  here.  Mr. 
Gary,  will  you  be  my  herald  this  time  1" 

"  A  better  Protestant  never  went  on  a  pleasanter  errand, 
my  Lord." 

So  Gary  went,  and  then  ensued  an  argument,  as  to  what 
should  be  done  with  the  prisoners  in  case  of  a  surrender. 

I  cannot  tell  whether  my  Lord  Grey  meant,  by  offering 
conditions  which  the  Spaniards  would  not  accept,  to  force  them 
into  fighting  the  quarrel  out,  and  so  save  himself  the  responsi- 
bility of  deciding  on  their  fate ;  or  whether  his  mere  natural 
stubbornness,  as  well  as  his  just  indignation,  drove  him  on  too 
far  to  retract :  but  the  council  of  war  which  followed  was  both 
a  sad  and  a  stormy  one,  and  one  which  he  had  reason  to  regret 
to  his  dying  day.  What  was  to  be  done  with  the  enemy? 
They  already  outnumbered  the  English;  and  some  fifteen  hun- 
dred of  Desmond's  wild  Irish  hovered  in  the  forests  round, 
ready  to  side  with  the  winning  party,  or  even  to  attack  the 
English  at  the  least  sign  of  vacillation  or  fear.  They  could  not 
carry  the  Spaniards  away  with  them,  for  they  had  neither  ship- 
ping nor  food,  not  even  handcuffs  enough  for  them ;  and  as 
Mackworth  told  Winter  when  he  proposed  it,  the  only  plan  was 
for  him  to  make  San  Josepho  a  present  of  his  ships,  and  swim 
home  himself  as  he  could.  To  turn  loose  in  Ireland,  as  Captain 
Touch  urged,  on  the  other  hand,  seven  hundred  such  monsters 
of  lawlessness,  cruelty,  and  lust,  as  Spanish  and  Italian  con- 
dottieri  were  in  those  days,  was  as  fatal  to  their  own  safety  as 
cruel  to  the  wretched  Irish.  All  the  captains,  without  excep- 
tion, followed  on  the  same  side.  "  What  was  to  be  done,  then  V 
asked  Lord  Grey  impatiently.  "  Would  they  have  him  murder 
them  all  in  cold  blood?" 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  195 

And  for  a  while  every  man,  knowing  that  it  must  come  to 
that,  and  yet  not  daring  to  say  it ;  till  Sir  Warham  St.  Leger, 
the  Marshal  of  Munster,  spoke  out  stoutly — "  Foreigners  had 
been  scoffing  them  too  long  and  too  truly  with  waging  these 
Irish  wars  as  if  they  meant  to  keep  them  alive,  rather  than  end 
them.  Mercy  and  faith  to  every  Irishman  who  would  show 
mercy  and  faith,  was  his  motto ;  but  to  invaders,  no  mercy. 
Ireland  was  England's  vulnerable  point ;  it  might  be  some  day 
her  ruin  ;  a  terrible  example  must  be  made  of  those  who  dare 
to  touch  the  sore.  Rather  pardon  the  Spaniards  for  landing  in 
the  Thames  than  in  Ireland !" — till  Lord  Grey  became  much 
excited,  and  turning  as  a  last  hope  to  Raleigh,  asked  his  opinion  : 
but  Raleigh's  silver  tongue  was  that  day  not  on  the  side  of 
indulgence.  He  skilfully  recapitulated  the  arguments  of  his 
fellow-captains,  improving  them  as  he  went  on,  till  each  worthy 
soldier  was  surprised  to  find  himself  so  much  wiser  a  man  than 
he  had  thought ;  and  finished  by  one  of  his  rapid  and  passionate 
perorations  upon  his  favourite  theme — the  West  Indian  cruelties 
of  the  Spaniards,  " ....  by  which  great  tracts  and  fair  coun- 
tries are  now  utterly  stripped  of  inhabitants  by  heavy  bondage 
and  torments  unspeakable.  Oh,  witless  Islanders ! "  said  he, 
apostrophising  the  Irish ;  "  would  to  Heaven  that  you  were  here 
to  listen  to  me !  What  other  fate  awaits  you,  if  this  viper, 
which  you  are  so  ready  to  take  into  your  bosom,  should  be 
warmed  to  life,  but  to  groan  like  the  Indians,  slaves  to  the 
Spaniard ;  but  to  perish  like  the  Indians,  by  heavy  burdens, 
cruel  chains,  plunder  and  ravishment ;  scourged,  racked,  roasted, 
stabbed,  sawn  in  sunder,  cast  to  feed  the  dogs,  as  simple  and 
more  righteous  peoples  have  perished  ere  now  by  millions? 
And  what  else,  I  say,  had  been  the  fate  of  Ireland  had  this 
invasion  prospered,  which  God  has  now,  by  our  weak  hands, 
confounded  and  brought  to  nought  1  Shall  we  then  answer  it, 
my  Lord,  either  to  our  conscience,  our  God,  or  our  queen,  if 
we  shall  set  loose  men  (not  one  of  whom,  I  warrant,  but  is 
stained  with  murder  on  murder)  to  go  and  fill  up  the  cup  of 
their  iniquity  among  these  silly  sheep  ?  Have  not  their  native 
wolves,  their  barbarous  chieftains,  shorn,  peeled,  and  slaughtered 
them  enough  already,  but  we  must  add  this  pack  of  foreign 
wolves  to  the  number  of  their  tormentors,  and  fit  the  Desmond 
with  a  bodyguard  of  seven,  yea,  seven  hundred  devils  worse 
than  himself?  Nay,  rather  let  us  do  violence  to  our  own 
human  nature,  and  show  ourselves  in  appearance  rigorous,  that 
we  may  be  kind  indeed ;  lest  while  we  presume  to  be  over- 


196  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

merciful  to  the  guilty,  we  prove  ourselves  to  be  over-cruel  to 
the  innocent." 

"  Captain  Raleigh,  Captain  Raleigh,"  said  Lord  Grey,  "  the 
blood  of  these  men  be  on  your  head  !" 

"  It  ill  befits  your  Lordship,"  answered  Raleigh,  "  to  throw 
on  your  subordinates  the  blame  of  that  which  your  reason 
approves  as  necessary." 

"  I  should  have  thought,  sir,  that  one  so  noted  for  ambition 
as  Captain  Raleigh  would  have  been  more  careful  of  the  favour 
of  that  queen  for  whose  smiles  he  is  said  to  be  so  longing  a 
competitor.  If  you  have  not  yet  been  of  her  counsels,  sir,  I  can 
tell  you  you  are  not  likely  to  be.  She  will  be  furious  when  she 
hears  of  this  cruelty." 

Lord  Grey  had  lost  his  temper :  but  Raleigh  kept  his,  and 
answered  quietly — 

"  Her  Majesty  shall  at  least  not  find  me  among  the  number 
of  those  who  prefer  her  favour  to  her  safety,  and  abuse  to  their 
own  profit  that  over-tenderness  and  mercifulness  of  heart  which 
is  the  only  blemish  (and  yet,  rather  like  a  mole  on  a  fair  cheek, 
but  a  new  beauty)  in  her  manifold  perfections." 
At  this  juncture  Gary  returned. 

"  My  Lord,"  said  he,  in  some  confusion,  "  I  have  proposed 
your  terms ;  but  the  captains  still  entreat  for  some  mitigation  ; 
and,  to  tell  you  truth,  one  of  them  has  insisted  on  accompanying 
me  hither  to  plead  his  cause  himself." 

"  I  will  not  see  him,  sir.     Who  is  he  ?" 
"  His  name  is  Sebastian  of  Modena,  my  Lord." 
"Sebastian   of  Modena?     What   think   you,    gentlemen? 
May  we  make  an  exception  in  favour  of  so  famous  a  soldier  ?" 

"  So  villanous  a  cut-throat,"  said  Zouch  to  Raleigh,  under 
his  breath. 

All,  however,  were  for  speaking  with  so  famous  a  man ;  and 
in  came,  in  full  armour,  a  short,  bull-necked  Italian,  evidently 
of  immense  strength,  of  the  true  Caesar  Borgia  stamp. 

"  Will  you  please  to  be  seated,  sir,"  said  Lord  Grey  coldly. 

"  I  kiss  your  hands,  most  illustrious :  but  I  do  not  sit  in  an 

enemy's  camp.     Ha,  my  friend  Zouch  !     How  has  your  Signoria 

fared  since  we  fought  side  by  side  at  Lepanto  ?     So  you  too 

are  here,  sitting  in  council  on  the  hanging  of  me." 

"  What  is  your  errand,  sir  1  Time  is  short,"  said  the  Lord 
Deputy. 

"  Corpo  di  Bacco  !  It  has  been  long  enough  all  the  morning, 
for  my  rascals  have  kept  me  and  my  friend  the  Colonel  Hercules 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  197 

(whom  you  know,  doubtless)  prisoners  in  our  tents  at  the  pike's 
point.  My  Lord  Deputy,  I  have  but  a  few  words.  I  shall  thank 
you  to  take  every  soldier  in  the  fort — Italian,  Spaniard,  and  Irish 
— and  hang  them  up  as  high  as  Haman,  for  a  set  of  mutinous 
cowards,  with  the  arch-traitor  San  Josepho  at  their  head." 

"  I  am  obliged  to  you  for  your  offer,  sir,  and  shall  deliberate 
presently  as  to  whether  I  shall  not  accept  it." 

"  But  as  for  us  captains,  really  your  Excellency  must  consider 
that  we  are  gentlemen  born,  and  give  us  either  buena  querra, 
as  the  Spaniards  say,  or  a  fair  chance  for  life ;  and  so  to  my 
business." 

"Stay,  sir.  Answer  this  first.  Have  you  or  yours  any 
commission  to  show  either  from  the  King  of  Spain  or  any  other 
potentate  V 

"  Never  a  one  but  the  cause  of  Heaven  and  our  own  swords. 
And  with  them,  my  Lord,  we  are  ready  to  meet  any  gentlemen 
of  your  camp,  man  to  man,  with  our  swords  only,  half-way 
between  your  leaguer  and  ours;  and  I  doubt  not  that  your 
Lordship  will  see  fair  play.  Will  any  gentleman  accept  so  civil 
an  offer?  There  sits  a  tall  youth  in  that  corner  who  would 
suit  me  very  well.  Will  any  fit  my  gallant  comrades  with  half- 
an-hour's  punto  and  stoccado  V1 

There  was  a  silence,  all  looking  at  the  Lord  Deputy,  whose 
eyes  were  kindling  in  a  very  ugly  way. 

"No  answer?  Then  I  must  proceed  to  exhortation.  So  ! 
Will  that  be  sufficient?" 

And  walking  composedly  across  the  tent,  the  fearless  ruffian 
quietly  stooped  down,  and  smote  Amyas  Leigh  full  in  the  face. 

Up  sprang  Amyas,  heedless  of  all  the  august  assembly,  and 
with  a  single  buffet  felled  him  to  the  earth. 

"Excellent!"  said  he,  rising  unabashed.  "I  can  always 
trust  my  instinct.  I  knew  the  moment  I  saw  him  that  he  was 
a  cavalier  worth  letting  blood.  Now,  sir,  your  sword  and  har- 
ness, and  I  am  at  your  service  outside  !" 

The  solemn  and  sententious  Englishmen  were  altogether  taken 
aback  by  the  Italian's  impudence ;  but  Zouch  settled  the  matter. 

"  Most  noble  Captain,  will  you  be  pleased  to  recollect  a 
certain  little  occurrence  at  Messina,  in  the  year  1575  ?  For  if 
you  do  not,  I  do ;  and  beg  to  inform  this  gentleman  that  you 
are  unworthy  of  his  sword,  and  had  you,  unluckily  for  you,  been 
an  Englishman,  would  have  found  the  fashions  of  our  country 
so  different  from  your  own  that  you  would  have  been  then 
hanged,  sir,  and  probably  may  be  so  still." 


198  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

The  Italian's  sword  flashed  out  in  a  moment :  but  Lord 
Grey  interfered. 

"  No  fighting  here,  gentlemen.  That  may  wait ;  and,  what 
is  more,  shall  wait  till —  Strike  their  swords  down,  Raleigh, 
Mackworth  !  Strike  their  swords  down  !  Colonel  Sebastian, 
you  will  be  pleased  to  return  as  you  came,  in  safety,  having  lost 
nothing,  as  (I  frankly  tell  you)  you  have  gained  nothing,  by  your 
wild  bearing  here.  We  shall  proceed  to  deliberate  on  your 
fate." 

"  I  trust,  my  Lord,"  said  Amyas,  "  that  you  will  spare  this 
braggart's  life,  at  least  for  a  day  or  two.  For  in  spite  of 
Captain  Zouch's  warning,  I  must  have  to  do  with  him  yet,  or 
my  cheek  will  rise  up  in  judgment  against  me  at  the  last  day." 

"Well  spoken,  lad,"  said  the  Colonel  as  he  swung  out. 
"  So  !  worth  a  reprieve,  by  this  sword,  to  have  one  more  rapier- 
rattle  before  the  gallows  !  Then  I  take  back  no  further  answer, 
my  Lord  Deputy  1  Not  even  our  swords,  our  virgin  blades, 
Signer,  the  soldier's  cherished  bride  ?  Shall  we  go  forth  weep- 
ing widowers,  and  leave  to  strange  embrace  the  lovely  steel  1" 

"  None,  sir,  by  heaven  !"  said  he,  waxing  wroth.  "  Do 
you  come  hither,  pirates  as  you  are,  to  dictate  terms  upon  a 
foreign  soil  ?  Is  it  not  enough  to  have  set  up  here  the  Spanish 
flag,  and  claimed  the  land  of  Ireland  as  the  Pope's  gift  to  the 
Spaniard ;  violated  the  laws  of  nations,  and  the  solemn  treaties 
of  princes,  under  colour  of  a  mad  superstition  ?" 

"  Superstition,  my  Lord  1  Nothing  less.  Believe  a  philo- 
sopher who  has  not  said  a  pater  or  an  ave  for  seven  years  past 
at  least.  Quod  tango  credo,  is  my  motto  ;  and  though  I  am 
bound  to  say,  under  pain  of  the  Inquisition,  that  the  most  holy 
Father  the  Pope  has  given  this  land  of  Ireland  to  his  most 
Catholic  Majesty  the  King  of  Spain,  Queen  Elizabeth  having 
forfeited  her  title  to  it  by  heresy, — why,  my  Lord,  I  believe  it 
as  little  as  you  do.  I  believe  that  Ireland  would  have  been 
mine,  if  I  had  won  it ;  I  believe  religiously  that  it  is  not  mine, 
now  I  have  lost  it.  What  is,  is,  and  a  fig  for  priests ;  to-day 
to  thee,  to-morrow  to  me.  Addio," — and  out  he  swung. 

"  There  goes  a  most  gallant  rascal,"  said  the  Lord  Deputy. 

"  And  a  most  rascally  gallant,"  said  Zouch,  "  The  mur- 
der of  his  own  page,  of  which  I  gave  him  a  remembrancer,  is 
among  the  least  of  his  sins." 

"  And  now,  Captain  Raleigh,"  said  Lord  Grey,  "  as  you 
have  been  so  earnest  in  preaching  this  butchery,  I  have  a  right 
to  ask  none  but  you  to  practise  it." 


CHAP,  ix.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  199 

Raleigh  bit  his  lip,  and  replied  by  the  "  quip  courteous  " — 

"  I  aru  at  least  a  man,  my  Lord,  who  thinks  it  shame  to 
allow  others  to  do  that  which  I  dare  not  do  myself." 

Lord  Grey  might  probably  have  returned  "the  countercheck 
quarrelsome,"  had  not  Mackworth  risen  ; — 

"And  I,  my  Lord,  being  in  that  matter  at  least  one  of 
Captain  Raleigh's  kidney,  will  just  go  with  him  to  see  that  he 
takes  no  harm  by  being  bold  enough  to  carry  out  an  ugly 
business,  and  serving  these  rascals  as  their  countrymen  served 
Mr.  Oxenham." 

"  I  bid  you  good  morning,  then,  gentlemen,  though  I  can- 
not bid  you  God  speed,"  said  Lord  Grey;  and  sitting  down 
again,  covered  his  face  with  his  hands,  and,  to  the  astonishment 
of  all  bystanders,  burst,  say  the  chroniclers,  into  tears. 

Amyas  followed  Raleigh  out.  The  latter  was  pale,  but 
determined,  and  very  wroth  against  the  Deputy. 

"  Does  the  man  take  me  for  a  hangman,"  said  he,  "  that 
he  speaks  to  me  thus  ?  But  such  is  the  way  of  the  great.  If 
you  neglect  your  duty,  they  haul  you  over  the  coals  ;  if  you  do 
it,  you  must  do  it  on  your  own  responsibility.  Farewell, 
Amyas;  you  will  not  shrink  from  me  as  a  butcher  when  I 
return  ?" 

"  God  forbid  !     But  how  will  you  do  it  ? " 

"  March  one  company  in,  and  drive  them  forth,  and  let  the 
other  cut  them  down  as  they  come  out. — Pah  !" 

It  was  done.  Right  or  wrong,  it  was  done.  The  shrieks 
and  curses  had  died  away,  and  the  Fort  del  Oro  was  a  red 
shambles,  which  the  soldiers  were  trying  to  cover  from  the 
sight  of  heaven  and  earth,  by  dragging  the  bodies  into  the 
ditch,  and  covering  them  with  the  ruins  of  the  rampart ;  while 
the  Irish,  who  had  beheld  from  the  woods  that  awful  warning, 
fled  trembling  into  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  forest.  It  was 
done ;  and  it  never  needed  to  be  done  again.  The  hint  was 
severe,  but  it  was  sufficient.  Many  years  passed  before  a 
Spaniard  set  foot  again  in  Ireland. 

The  Spanish  and  Italian  officers  were  spared,  and  Amyas 
had  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena  Sotomayor  de  Soto  duly 
adjudged  to  him,  as  his  prize  by  right  of  war.  He  was,  of 
course,  ready  enough  to  fight  Sebastian  of  Modena :  but  Lord 
Grey  forbade  the  duel :  blood  enough  had  been  shed  already. 
The  next  question  was,  where  to  bestow  Don  Guzman  till  his 
ransom  should  arrive ;  and  as  Amyas  could  not  well  deliver 


200  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

the  gallant  Don  into  the  safe  custody  of  Mrs.  Leigh  at  Bur- 
rough,  and  still  less  into  that  of  Frank  at  Court,  he  was  fain 
to  write  to  Sir  Richard  Grenvile,  and  ask  his  advice,  and  in 
the  meanwhile  keep  the  Spaniard  with  him  upon  parole,  which 
he  frankly  gave, — saying  that  as  for  running  away,  he  had 
nowhere  to  run  to  ;  and  as  for  joining  the  Irish  he  had  no 
mind  to  turn  pig ;  and  Amyas  found  him,  as  shall  be  here- 
after told,  pleasant  company  enough.  But  one  morning  Raleigh 
entered, — 

"  I  have  done  you  a  good  turn,  Leigh,  if  you  think  it  one. 
I  have  talked  St.  Leger  into  making  you  my  lieutenant,  and 
giving  you  the  custody  of  a  right  pleasant  hermitage — some 
castle  Shackatory  or  other  in  the  midst  of  a  big  bog,  where 
time  will  run  swift  and  smooth  with  you,  between  hunting 
wild  Irish,  snaring  snipes,  and  drinking  yourself  drunk  with 
usquebaugh  over  a  turf  fire." 

"I'll  go,"  quoth  Amyas;  "anything  for  work."  So  he 
went  and  took  possession  of  his  lieutenancy  and  his  black 
robber  tower,  and  there  passed  the  rest  of  the  winter,  fighting 
or  hunting  all  day,  and  chatting  and  reading  all  the  evening, 
with  Seiior  Don  Guzman,  who,  like  a  good  soldier  of  fortune, 
made  himself  thoroughly  at  home,  and  a  general  favourite  with 
the  soldiers. 

At  first,  indeed,  his  Spanish  pride-  and  stateliness,  and 
Amyas's  English  taciturnity,  kept  the  two  apart  somewhat; 
but  they  soon  began,  if  not  to  trust,  at  least  to  like  each  other  ; 
and  Don  Guzman  told  Amyas,  bit  by  bit,  who  he  was,  of  what 
an  ancient  house,  and  of  what  a  poor  one ;  and  laughed  over 
the  very  small  chance  of  his  ransom  being  raised,  and  the 
certainty  that,  at  least,  it  could  not  come  for  a  couple  of  years, 
seeing  that  the  only  De  Soto  who  had  a  penny  to  spare  was  a 
fat  old  dean  at  St.  Yago  de  Leon,  in  the  Caraccas,  at  which 
place  Don  Guzman  had  been  born.  This  of  course  led  to  much 
talk  about  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Don  was  as  much  inter- 
ested to  find  that  Amyas  had  been  one  of  Drake's  world-famous 
crew,  as  Amyas  was  to  find  that  his  captive  was  the  grandson 
of  none  other  than  that  most  terrible  of  man-hunters,  Don  Fer- 
dinando  de  Soto,  the  conqueror  of  Florida,  of  whom  Amyas 
had  read  many  a  time  in  Las  Casas,  "  as  the  captain  of  tyrants, 
the  notoriousest  and  most  experimented  amongst  them  that 
have  done  the  most  hurts,  mischiefs,  and  destructions  in  many 
realms."  And  often  enough  his  blood  boiled,  and  he  had  much 
ado  to  recollect  that  the  speaker  was  his  guest,  as  Don  Guzman 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  201 

chatted  away  about  his  grandfather's  hunts,  of  innocent  women 
and  children,  murders  of  caciques  and  burnings  alive  of  guides, 
"pour  encouragcr  les  autres"  without,  seemingly,  the  least 
feeling  that  the  victims  were  human  beings  or  subjects  for 
human  pity ;  anything,  in  short,  but  heathen  dogs,  enemies  of 
God,  servants  of  the  devil,  to  be  used  by  the  Christian  when 
he  needed,  and  when  not  needed  killed  down  as  cumberers  of 
the  ground.  But  Don  Guzman  was  a  most  finished  gentle- 
man nevertheless  ;  and  told  many  a  good  story  of  the  Indies, 
and  told  it  well  ;  and  over  and  above  his  stories,  he  had  among 
his  baggage  two  books, — the  one  Antonio  Galvano's  "  Dis- 
coveries of  the  World,"  a  mine  of  winter  evening  amusement 
to  Amyas ;  and  the  other,  a  manuscript  book,  which,  perhaps, 
it  had  been  well  for  Amyas  had  he  never  seen.  For  it  was 
none  other  than  a  sort  of  rough  journal  which  Don  Guzman 
had  kept  as  a  lad,  when  he  went  down  with  the  Adelantado 
Gonzales  Ximenes  de  Casada,  from  Peru  to  the  Eiver  of 
Amazons,  to  look  for  the  golden  country  of  El  Dorado,  and  the 
city  of  Manoa,  which  stands  in  the  midst  of  the  White  Lake, 
and  equals  or  surpasses  in  glory  even  the  palace  of  the  Inca 
Huaynacapac ;  "  all  the  vessels  of  whose  house  and  kitchen  are 
of  gold  and  silver,  and  in  his  wardrobe  statues  of  gold  which 
seemed  giants,  and  figures  in  proportion  and  bigness  of  all  the 
beasts,  birds,  trees,  and  herbs  of  the  earth,  and  the  fishes  of 
the  water ;  and  ropes,  budgets,  chests,  and  troughs  of  gold : 
yea,  and  a  garden  of  pleasure  in  an  Island  near  Puna,  where 
they  went  to  recreate  themselves  when  they  would  take  the  air 
of  the  sea,  which  had  all  kind  of  garden  herbs,  flowers,  and 
trees  of  gold  and  silver  of  an  invention  and  magnificence  till 
then  never  seen." 

Now  the  greater  part  of  this  treasure  (and  be  it  remembered 
that  these  wonders  were  hardly  exaggerated,  and  that  there  were 
many  men  alive  then  who  had  beheld  them,  as  they  had  worse 
things,  "  with  their  corporal  and  mortal  eyes  ")  was  hidden  by 
the  Indians  when  Pizarro  conquered  Peru  and  slew  Atahuallpa, 
son  of  Huaynacapac ;  at  whose  death,  it  was  said,  one  of  the 
Inca's  younger  brothers  fled  out  of  Peru,  and  taking  with  him 
a  great  army,  vanquished  all  that  tract  which  lieth  between 
the  great  Eivers  of  Amazons  and  Baraquan,  otherwise  called 
Maranon  and  Orenoque. 

There  he  sits  to  this  day,  beside  the  golden  lake,  in  the 
golden  city,  which  is  in  breadth  a  three  days'  journey,  covered, 
he  and  his  court,  with  gold  dust  from  head  to  foot,  waiting  for 


202  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  ix. 

the  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  prophecy  which  was  written  in  the 
temple  of  Caxamarca,  where  his  ancestors  worshipped  of  old ; 
that  heroes  shall  come  out  of  the  West,  and  lead  him  back  across 
the  forests  to  the  kingdom  of  Peru,  and  restore  him  to  the  glory 
of  his  forefathers. 

Golden  phantom  !  so  possible,  so  probable,  to  imaginations 
which  were  yet  reeling  before  the  actual  and  veritable  prodigies 
of  Peru,  Mexico,  and  the  East  Indies.  Golden  phantom  !  which 
has  cost  already  the  lives  of  thousands,  and  shall  yet  cost  more ; 
from  Diego  de  Ordas,  and  Juan  Corteso,  and  many  another,  who 
went  forth  on  the  quest  by  the  Andes,  and  by  the  Orinoco,  and 
by  the  Amazons ;  Antonio  Sedenno,  with  his  ghastly  caravan  of 
manacled  Indians,  "  on  whose  dead  carcasses  the  tigers  being 
fleshed,  assaulted  the  Spaniards  ;"  Augustine  Delgado,  who 
"came  to  a  cacique,  who  entertained  him  with  all  kindness, 
and  gave  him  beside  much  gold  and  slaves,  three  nymphs  very 
beautiful,  which  bare  the  names  of  three  provinces,-  Guanba, 
Gotoguane,  and  Maiarare.  To  requite  which  manifold  cour- 
tesies, he  carried  off,  not  only  all  the  gold,  but  all  the  Indians 
he  could  seize,  and  took  them  in  irons  to  Cubagua,  and  sold 
them  for  slaves  ;  after  which,  Delgado  was  shot  in  the  eye  by 
an  Indian,  of  which  hurt  he  died ;"  Pedro  d'Orsua,  who  found 
the  cinnamon  forests  of  Loxas,  "  whom  his  men  murdered,  and 
afterwards  beheaded  Lady  Anes  his  wife,  who  forsook  not  her 
lord  in  all  his  travels  unto  death,"  and  many  another,  who  has 
vanished  with  valiant  comrades  at  his  back  into  the  green 
gulfs  of  the  primaeval  forests,  never  to  emerge  again.  Golden 
phantom  !  man-devouring,  whose  maw  is  never  satiate  with 
souls  of  heroes ;  fatal  to  Spain,  more  fatal  still  to  England  upon 
that  shameful  day,  when  the  last  of  Elizabeth's  heroes  shall  lay 
down  his  head  upon  the  block,  nominally  for  having  believed 
what  all  around  him  believed  likewise  till  they  found  it  expe- 
dient to  deny  it  in  order  to  curry  favour  with  the  crowned  cur 
who  betrayed  him,  really  because  he  alone  dared  to  make  one 
last  protest  in  behalf  of  liberty  and  Protestantism  against  the 
incoming  night  of  tyranny  and  superstition.  Little  thought 
Amyas,  as  he  devoured  the  pages  of  that  manuscript,  that  he 
was  laying  a  snare  for  the  life  of  the  man  whom,  next  to  Drake 
and  Grenvile,  he  most  admired  on  earth. 

But  Don  Guzman,  on  the  other  hand,  seemed  to  have  an 
instinct  that  that  book  might  be  a  fatal  gift  to  his  captor  •  for 
one  day  ere  Amyas  had  looked  into  it,  he  began  questioning  the 
Don  about  El  Dorado.  Whereon  Don  Guzman  replied  with 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  203 

one  of  those  smiles  of  his,  which  (as  Amyas  said  afterwards) 
was  so  abominably  like  a  sneer,  that  he  had  often  hard  work 
to  keep  his  hands  off  the  man — 

"  Ah  !  You  have  been  eating  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge,  Senor  ?  Well ;  if  you  have  any  ambition  to  follow 
many  another  brave  captain  to  the  pit,  I  know  no  shorter  or 
easier  path  than  is  contained  in  that  little  book." 

"I  have  never  opened  your  book,"  said  Amyas;  "your  private 
manuscripts  are  no  concern  of  mine  :  but  my  man  who  recovered 
your  baggage  read  part  of  it,  knowing  no  better ;  and  now  you 
are  at  liberty  to  tell  me  as  little  as  you  like." 

The  "  man  "  it  should  be  said,  was  none  other  than  Salva- 
tion Yeo,  who  had  attached  himself  by  this  time  inseparably  to 
Amyas,  in  quality  of  body-guard :  and,  as  was  common  enough 
in  those  days,  had  turned  soldier  for  the  nonce,  and  taken  under 
his  patronage  two  or  three  rusty  bases  (swivels)  and  falconets 
(four-pounders),  which  grinned  harmlessly  enough  from  the 
tower  top  across  the  cheerful  expanse  of  bog. 

Amyas  once  asked  him,  how  he  reconciled  this  Irish  sojourn 
with  his  vow  to  find  his  little  maid  1  Yeo  shook  his  head. 

"I  can't  tell,  sir,  but  there's  something  that  makes  me 
always  to  think  of  you  when  I  think  of  her ;  and  that's  often 
enough,  the  Lord  knows.  Whether  it  is  that  I  ben't  to  find 
the  dear  without  your  help ;  or  whether  it  is  your  pleasant  face 
puts  me  in  mind  of  hers ;  or  what,  I  can't  tell ;  but  don't  you 
part  me  from  you,  sir,  for  I'm  like  Ruth,  and  where  you  lodge 
I  lodge ;  and  where  you  go  I  go  ;  and  where  you  die — though  I 
shall  die  many  a  year  first — there  I'll  die,  I  hope  and  trust ;  for 
I  can't  abear  you  out  of  my  sight ;  and  that's  the  truth  thereof." 

So  Yeo  remained  with  Amyas,  while  Gary  went  elsewhere 
with  Sir  Warham  St.  Leger,  and  the  two  friends  met  seldom 
for  many  months ;  so  that  Arnyas's  only  companion  was  Don 
Guzman,  who,  as  he  grew  more  familiar,  and  more  careless  about 
what  he  said  and  did  in  his  captor's  presence,  often  puzzled  and 
scandalised  him  by  his  waywardness.  Fits  of  deep  melancholy 
alternated  with  bursts  of  Spanish  boastfulness,  utterly  astonish- 
ing to  the  modest  and  sober-minded  Englishman,  who  would 
often  have  fancied  him  inspired  by  usquebaugh,  had  he  not  had 
ocular  proof  of  his  extreme  abstemiousness. 

"  Miserable  ?"  said  he,  one  night  in  one  of  these  fits.  "  And 
have  I  not  a  right  to  be  miserable  ? — Why  should  I  not  curse 
the  virgin  and  all  the  saints,  and  die  ?  I  have  not  a  friend, 
not  a  ducat  on  earth ;  not  even  a  sword — hell  and  the  furies ! 


204  HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  [CHAP.  IX. 

It  was  my  all :  the  only  bequest  I  ever  had  from  my  father, 
and  I  lived  by  it  and  earned  by  it.  Two  years  ago  I  had  as 
pretty  a  sum  of  gold  as  cavalier  could  wish — and  now  !" — 

"  What  is  become  of  it,  then  1  I  cannot  hear  that  our  men 
plundered  you  of  any." 

"  Your  men  ?  No,  Senor !  What  fifty  men  dared  not 
have  done,  one  woman  did  !  a  painted,  patched,  fucused,  peri- 
wigged, bolstered,  Charybdis,  cannibal,  Megsera,  Lamia  !  Why 
did  I  ever  go  near  that  cursed  Naples,  the  common  sewer  of 
Europe  1  whose  women,  I  believe,  would  be  swallowed  up  by 
Vesuvius  to-morrow,  if  it  were  not  that  Belphegor  is  afraid  of 
their  making  the  pit  itself  too  hot  to  hold  him.  Well,  sir,  she 
had  all  of  mine  and  more ;  and  when  all  was  gone  in  wine  and 
dice,  woodcocks'  brains  and  ortolans'  tongues,  I  met  the  witch 
walking  with  another  man.  I  had  a  sword  and  a  dagger ;  I 
gave  him  the  first  (though  the  dog  fought  well  enough,  to  give 
him  his  due),  and  her  the  second ;  left  them  lying  across  each 
other,  and  fled  for  my  life  : — and  here  I  am  !  after  twenty  years 
of  fighting,  from  the  Levant  to  the  Orellana — for  I  began  ere 
I  had  a  hair  on  my  chin — and  this  is  the  end ! — No,  it  is  not ! 
I'll  have  that  El  Dorado  yet !  the  Adelantado  made  Berreo, 
when  he  gave  him  his  daughter,  swear  that  he  would  hunt  for 
it,  through  life  and  death. — We'll  see  who  finds  it  first,  he  or 
I.  He's  a  bungler ;  Orsua  was  a  bungler — Pooh  !  Cortes  and 
Pizarro  ?  we'll  see  whether  there  are  not  as  good  Castilians  as 
they  left  still.  I  can  do  it,  Senor.  I  know  a  track,  a  plan ; 
over  the  Llanos  is  the  road ;  and  I'll  be  Emperor  of  Manoa  yet 
— possess  the  jewels  of  all  the  Incas ;  and  gold,  gold  !  Pizarro 
was  a  beggar  to  what  I  will  be  !" 

"  Conceive,  sir,"  he  broke  forth  during  another  of  these 
peacock  fits,  as  Amyas  and  he  were  riding  along  the  hill-side  ; 
"conceive!  with  forty  chosen  cavaliers  (what  need  of  more1?) 
I  present  myself  before  the  golden  king,  trembling  amid  his 
myriad  guards  at  the  new  miracle  of  the  mailed  centaurs  of  the 
West;  and  without  dismounting,  I  approach  his  throne,  lift 
the  crucifix  which  hangs  around  my  neck,  and  pressing  it  to 
my  lips,  present  it  for  the  adoration  of  the  idolater,  and  give 
him  his  alternative ;  that  which  Gayferos  and  the  Cid,  my 
ancestors,  offered  the  Soldan  and  the  Moor — baptism  or  death ! 
He  hesitates ;  perhaps  smiles  scornfully  upon  my  little  band ; 
I  answer  him  by  deeds,  as  Don  Ferdinando,  my  illustrious 
grandfather,  answered  Atahuallpa  at  Peru,  in  sight  of  all  his 
court  and  camp." 


CHAP.  IX.]  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.  205 

"With  your  lance-point,  as  Gayferos  did  the  Soldan?" 
asked  Amyas,  amused. 

"  No,  sir ;  persuasion  first,  for  the  salvation  of  a  soul  is  at 
stake.  Not  with  the  lance-point,  but  the  spur,  sir,  thus  !  "- 

And  striking  his  heels  into  his  horse's  flanks,  he  darted  off 
at  full  speed. 

"The  Spanish  traitor!"  shouted  Yeo.  "He's  going  to 
escape  !  Shall  we  shoot,  sir  1  Shall  we  shoot?" 

"For  Heaven's  sake,  no!"  said  Amyas,  looking  somewhat 
blank,  nevertheless,  for  he  much  doubted  whether  the  whole 
was  not  a  ruse  on  the  part  of  the  Spaniard,  and  he  knew  how 
impossible  it  was  for  his  fifteen  stone  of  flesh  to  give  chase  to 
the  Spaniard's  twelve.  But  he  was  soon  reassured  ;  the  Spaniard 
wheeled  round  towards  him,  and  began  to  put  the  rough  hackney 
through  all  the  paces  of  the  manege  with  a  grace  and  skill  which 
won  applause  from  the  beholders. 

"  Thus  ! "  he  shouted,  waving  his  hand  to  Amyas,  between 
his  curvets  and  caracoles,  "did  my  illustrious  grandfather 
exhibit  to  the  Paynim  emperor  the  prowess  of  a  Castilian 
cavalier  !  Thus  ! — and  thus  ! — and  thus,  at  last,  he  dashed  up 
to  his  very  feet,  as  I  to  yours,  and  bespattering  that  unbaptized 
visage  with  his  Christian  bridlefoam,  pulled  up  his  charger  on 
his  haunches,  thus !" 

And  (as  was  to  be  expected  from  a  blown  Irish  garron  on 
a  peaty  Irish  hill-side)  down  went  the  hapless  hackney  on  his 
tail,  away  went  his  heels  a  yard  in  front  of  him,  and  ere  Don 
Guzman  could  "  avoid  his  selle,"  horse  and  man  rolled  over  into 
a  neighbouring  bog-hole. 

"  After  pride  comes  a  fall,"  quoth  Yeo  with  unmoved  visage 
as  he  lugged  him  out. 

"  And  what  would  you  do  with  the  Emperor  at  last  1" 
asked  Amyas  when  the  Don  had  been  scrubbed  somewhat  clean 
with  a  bunch  of  rushes.  "  Kill  him,  as  your  grandfather  did 
Atahuallpa?" 

"My  grandfather,"  answered  the  Spaniard  indignantly, 
"  was  one  of  those  who,  to  their  eternal  honour,  protested  to 
the  last  against  that  most  cruel  and  unknightly  massacre.  He 
could  be  terrible  to  the  heathen ;  but  he  kept  his  plighted  word, 
sir,  and  taught  me  to  keep  mine,  as  you  have  seen  to-day." 

"  I  have,  Senor,"  said  Amyas.  "  You  might  have  given  us 
the  slip  easily  enough  just  now,  and  did  not.  Pardon  me,  if  I 
have  offended  you." 

The  Spaniard  (who,  after  all,  was  cross  principally  with 


206       HOW  AMYAS  KEPT  HIS  CHRISTMAS  DAY.          [CHAP.  ix. 

himself  and  the  "  unlucky  mare's  son,"  as  the  old  romances 
have  it,  which  had  played  him  so  scurvy  a  trick)  was  all  smiles 
again  forthwith ;  and  Amyas,  as  they  chatted  on,  could  not 
help  asking  him  next — 

"  I  wonder  why  you  are  so  frank  about  your  own  intentions 
to  an  enemy  like  me,  who  will  surely  forestal  you  if  he  can." 

"  Sir,  a  Spaniard  needs  no  concealment,  and  fears  no  rivalry. 
He  is  the  soldier  of  the  Cross,  and  in  it  he  conquers,  like  Con- 
stantine  of  old.  Not  that  you  English  are  not  very  heroes ; 
but  you  have  not,  sir,  and  you  cannot  have,  who  have  forsworn 
our  Lady  and  the  choir  of  saints,  the  same  divine  protection, 
the  same  celestial  mission,  which  enables  the  Catholic  cavalier 
single-handed  to  chase  a  thousand  Paynims." 

And  Don  Guzman  crossed  himself  devoutly,  and  muttered 
half-a-dozen  Ave  Marias  in  succession,  while  Amyas  rode  silently 
by  his  side,  utterly  puzzled  at  this  strange  compound  of  shrewd- 
ness with  fanaticism,  of  perfect  high-breeding  with  a  boastful- 
ness  which  in  an  Englishman  would  have  been  the  sure  mark 
of  vulgarity. 

At  last  came  a  letter  from  Sir  Eichard  Grenvile,  compli- 
menting Amyas  on  his  success  and  promotion,  bearing  a  long 
and  courtly  message  to  Don  Guzman  (whom  Grenvile  had 
known  when  he  was  in  the  Mediterranean,  at  the  battle  of 
Lepanto),  and  offering  to  receive  him  as  his  own  guest  at  Bide- 
ford,  till  his  ransom  should  arrive ;  a  proposition  which  the 
Spaniard  (who  of  course  was  getting  sufficiently  tired  of  the  Irish 
bogs)  could  not  but  gladly  accept ;  and  one  of  Winter's  ships, 
returning  to  England  in  the  spring  of  1581,  delivered  duly  at 
the  quay  of  Bideford  the  body  of  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magda- 
lena.  Kaleigh,  after  forming  for  that  summer  one  of  the  trium- 
virate by  which  Munster  was  governed  after  Ormond's  departure, 
at  last  got  his  wish  and  departed  for  England  and  the  Court ; 
and  Amyas  was  left  alone  with  the  snipes  and  yellow  mantles 
for  two  more  weary  years. 


CHAP.  X.]          HOW  MR.    SALTERNE  BAITED  HIS  HOOK.          207 


CHAPTER  X. 

HOW   THE    MAYOR   OF    BIDEFOKD   BAITED   HIS   HOOK    WITH   HIS 
OWN  FLESH. 

"  And  therewith  he  blent,  and  cried  ha  1 
As  though  he  had  been  stricken  to  the  harte." 

Palamon  and  Arcite. 

So  it  befell  to  Chaucer's  knight  in  prison ;  and  so  it  befell  also 
to  Don  Guzman ;  and  it  befell  on  this  wise. 

He  settled  down  quietly  enough  at  Bideford  on  his  parole, 
in  better  quarters  than  he  had  occupied  for  many  a  day,  and 
took  things  as  they  came,  like  a  true  soldier  of  fortune  ;  till, 
after  he  had  been  with  Grenvile  hardly  a  month,  old  Salterne 
the  Mayor  came  to  supper. 

Now  Don  Guzman,  however  much  he  might  be  puzzled  at 
first  at  our  strange  English  ways  of  asking  burghers  and  such 
low-bred  folk  to  eat  and  drink  above  the  salt,  in  the  company 
of  noble  persons-,  was  quite  gentleman  enough  to  know  that 
Richard  Grenvile  was  gentleman  enough  to  do  only  what  was 
correct,  and  according  to  the  customs  and  proprieties.  So  after 
shrugging  the  shoulders  of  his  spirit,  he  submitted  to  eat  and 
drink  at  the  same  board  with  a  tradesman  who  sat  at  a  desk, 
and  made  up  ledgers,  and  took  apprentices ;  and  hearing  him 
talk  with  Grenvile  neither  unwisely  nor  in  a  vulgar  fashion, 
actually  before  the  evening  was  out  condescended  to  exchange 
words  with  him  himself.  Whereon  he  found  him  a  very  pru- 
dent and  courteous  person,  quite  aware  of  the  Spaniard's  superior 
rank,  and  making  him  feel  in  every  sentence  that  he  was  aware 
thereof;  and  yet  holding  his  own  opinion,  and  asserting  his  own 
rights  as  a  wise  elder  in  a  fashion  which  the  Spaniard  had  only 
seen  before  among  the  merchant  princes  of  Genoa  and  Venice. 

At  the  end  of  supper,  Salterne  asked  Grenvile  to  do  his 
humble  roof  the  honour,  etc.  etc. ,  of  supping  with  him  the  next 
evening,  and  then  turning  to  the  Don,  said  quite  frankly, 
that  he  knew  how  great  a  condescension  it  would  be  on  the 
part  of  a  nobleman  of  Spain  to  sit  at  the  board  of  a  simple 
merchant :  but  that  if  the  Spaniard  deigned  to  do  him  such  a 
favour,  he  would  find  that  the  cheer  was  fit  enough  for  any 
rank,  whatsoever  the  company  might  be  ;  which  invitation  Don 
Guzman,  being  on  the  whole  glad  enough  of  anything  to  amuse 


208  HOW  MR.  SALTERNE  BAITED  HIS  HOOK          [CHAP.  x. 

him,  graciously  condescended  to  accept,  and  gained  thereby  an  ex- 
cellent supper,  and,  if  he  had  chosen  to  drink  it,  much  good  wine. 

Now  Mr.  Salterne  was,  of  course,  as  a  wise  merchant,  as 
ready  as  any  man  for  an  adventure  to  foreign  parts,  as  was 
afterwards  proved  by  his  great  exertions  in  the  settlement  of 
Virginia  ;  and  he  was,  therefore,  equally  ready  to  rack  the 
brains  of  any  guest  whom  he  suspected  of  knowing  anything 
concerning  strange  lands ;  and  so  he  thought  no  shame,  first  to 
try  to  loose  his  guest's  tongue  by  much  good  sack,  and  next  to 
ask  him  prudent  and  well -concocted  questions  concerning  the 
Spanish  Main,  Peru,  the  Moluccas,  China,  the  Indies,  and  all 
parts. 

The  first  of  which  schemes  failed ;  for  the  Spaniard  was  as 
abstemious  as  any  monk,  and  drank  little  but  water ;  the 
second  succeeded  not  over  well,  for  the  Spaniard  was  as  cunning 
as  any  fox,  and  answered  little  but  wind. 

In  the  midst  of  which  tongue -fence  in  came  the  Eose  of 
Torridge,  looking  as  beautiful  as  usual ;  and  hearing  what  they 
were  upon,  added,  artlessly  enough,  her  questions  to  her  father's : 
to  her  Don  Guzman  could  not  but  answer  ;  and  without  reveal- 
ing any  very  important  commercial  secrets,  gave  his  host  and 
his  host's  daughter  a  very  amusing  evening. 

Now  little  Eros,  though  spirits  like  Frank  Leigh's  may 
choose  to  call  him  (as,  perhaps,  he  really  is  to  them)  the  eldest 
of  the  gods,  and  the  son  of  Jove  and  Venus,  yet  is  reported  by 
other  equally  good  authorities,  as  Burton  has  set  forth  in  his 
"Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  to  be  after  all  only  the  child  of  idle- 
ness and  fulness  of  bread.  To  which  scandalous  calumny  the 
thoughts  of  Don  Guzman's  heart  gave  at  least  a  certain  colour ; 
for  he  being  idle  (as  captives  needs  must  be),  and  also  full  of 
bread  (for  Sir  Eichard  kept  a  very  good  table),  had  already 
looked  round  for  mere  amusement's  sake  after  some  one  with 
whom  to  fall  in  love.  Lady  Grenvile,  as  nearest,  was,  I  blush 
to  say,  thought  of  first ;  but  the  Spaniard  was  a  man  of  honour, 
and  Sir  Eichard  his  host ;  so  he  put  away  from  his  mind  (with 
a  self-denial  on  which  he  plumed  himself  much)  the  pleasure  of 
a  chase  equally  exciting  to  his  pride  and  his  love  of  danger. 
As  for  the  sinfulness  of  the  said  chase,  he  of  course  thought  no 
more  of  that  than  other  Southern  Europeans  did  then,  or  than 
(I  blush  again  to  have  to  say  it)  the  English  did  afterwards  in 
the  days  of  the  Stuarts.  Nevertheless,  he  had  put  Lady  Gren- 
vile out  of  his  mind ;  and  so  left  room  to  take  Eose  Salterne 
into  it,  not  with  any  distinct  purpose  of  wronging  her  :  but,  as 


CHAP,  x.l    v  WITH  HIS  OWN   FLESH.  209 

I  said  before,  half  to  amuse  himself,  and  half,  too,  because  he 
could  not  help  it.  For  there  was  an  innocent  freshness  about 
the  Rose  of  Torridge,  fond  as  she  was  of  being  admired,  which 
was  new  to  him  and  most  attractive.  "  The  train  of  the  pea- 
cock," as  he  said  to  himself,  "  and  yet  the  heart  of  the  dove," 
made  so  charming  a  combination,  that  if  he  could  have  persuaded 
her  to  love  no  one  but  him,  perhaps  he  might  become  fool  enough 
to  love  no  one  but  her.  And  at  that  thought  he  was  seized 
with  a  very  panic  of  prudence,  and  resolved  to  keep  out  of  her 
way ;  and  yet  the  days  ran  slowly,  and  Lady  Grenvile  when  at 
home  was  stupid  enough  to  talk  and  think  about  nothing  but 
her  husband ;  and  when  she  went  to  Stow,  and  left  the  Don 
alone  in  one  corner  of  the  great  house  at  Bideford,  what  could 
he  do  but  lounge  down  to  the  butt-gardens  to  show  off  his  fine 
black  cloak  and  fine  black  feather,  see  the  shooting,  have  a 
game  or  two  of  rackets  with  the  youngsters,  a  game  or  two  of 
bowls  with  the  elders,  and  get  himself  invited  home  to  supper 
by  Mr.  Salterue  ? 

And  there,  of  course,  he  had  it  all  his  own  way,  and 
ruled  the  roast  (which  he  was  fond  enough  of  doing)  right 
royally,  not  only  on  account  of  his  rank,  but  because  he  had 
something  to  say  worth  hearing,  as  a  travelled  man.  For  those 
times  were  the  day-dawn  of  English  commerce;  and  not  a 
merchant  in  Bideford,  or  in  all  England,  but  had  his  imagina- 
tion all  on  fire  with  projects  of  discoveries,  companies,  privileges, 
patents,  and  settlements;  with  gallant  rivalry  of  the  brave 
adventures  of  Sir  Edward  Osborne  and  his  new  London  Com- 
pany of  Turkey  Merchants ;  with  the  privileges  just  granted  by 
the  Sidtan  Murad  Khan  to  the  English;  with  the  worthy 
Levant  voyages  of  Roger  Bodenham  in  the  great  bark  Aucher, 
and  of  John  Fox,  and  Lawrence  Aldersey,  and  John  Rule ;  and 
with  hopes  from  the  vast  door  for  Mediterranean  trade,  which 
the  crushing  of  the  Venetian  power  at  Famagusta  in  Cyprus, 
and  the  alliance  made  between  Elizabeth  and  the  Grand  Turk, 
had  just  thrown  open.  So  not  a  word  could  fall  from  the 
Spaniard  about  the  Mediterranean  but  took  root  at  once  in 
right  fertile  soil.  Besides,  Master  Edmund  Hogan  had  been  on 
a  successful  embassy  to  the  Emperor  of  Morocco;  John  Hawkins 
and  George  Fenner  had  been  to  Guinea  (and  with  the  latter 
Mr.  Walter  Wren,  a  Bideford  man),  and  had  traded  there  for 
musk  and  civet,  gold  and  grain  ;  and  African  news  was  becom- 
ing almost  as  valuable  as  West  Indian.  Moreover,  but  two 
months  before  had  gone  from  London  Captain  Hare  in  the  bark 

p 


210  HOW  MR.   SALTERNE  BAITED  HIS  HOOK          [CHAP.  X 

Million,  for  Brazil,  and  a  company  of  adventurers  with  him, 
with  Sheffield  hardware,  and  "Devonshire  and  Northern  kersies," 
hollands  and  "  Manchester  cottons,"  for  there  was  a  great 
opening  for  English  goods  by  the  help  of  one  John  Whithall, 
who  had  married  a  Spanish  heiress,  and  had  an  ingenio  and 
slaves  in  Santos.  (Don't  smile,  reader,  or  despise  the  day  of 
small  things,  and  those  who  sowed  the  seed  whereof  you  reap 
the  mighty  harvest.)  In  the  meanwhile,  Drake  had  proved 
not  merely  the  possibility  of  plundering  the  American  coasts, 
but  of  establishing  an  East  Indian  trade  ;  Frobisher  and  Davis, 
worthy  forefathers  of  our  Parrys  and  Franklins,  had  begun  to 
bore  their  way  upward  through  the  Northern  ice,  in  search  of  a 
passage  to  China  which  should  avoid  the  dangers  of  the  Spanish 
seas ;  and  Anthony  Jenkinson,  not  the  least  of  English  travel- 
lers, had,  in  six-and-twenty  years  of  travel  in  behalf  of  the 
Muscovite  Company,  penetrated  into  not  merely  Russia  and  the 
Levant,  but  Persia  and  Armenia,  Bokhara,  Tartary,  Siberia, 
and  those  waste  Arctic  shores  where,  thirty  years  before,  the 
brave  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby, 

"  In  Arzina  caught, 
Perished  with  all  his  crew." 

Everywhere  English  commerce,  under  the  genial  sunshine  of 
Elizabeth's  wise  rule,  was  spreading  and  taking  root ;  and  as 
Don  Guzman  talked  with  his  new  friends,  he  soon  saw  (for  he 
was  shrewd  enough)  that  they  belonged  to  a  race  which  must 
be  exterminated  if  Spain  intended  to  become  (as  she  did  intend) 
the  mistress  of  the  world;  and  that  it  was  not  enough  for 
Spain  to  have  seized  in  the  Pope's  name  the  whole  new  world, 
and  claimed  the  exclusive  right  to  sail  the  seas  of  America ; 
not  enough  to  have  crushed  the  Hollanders;  not  enough  to 
have  degraded  the  Venetians  into  her  bankers,  and  the  Genoese 
into  her  mercenaries ;  not  enough  to  have  incorporated  into 
herself,  with  the  kingdom  of  Portugal,  the  whole  East  Indian 
trade  of  Portugal,  while  these  fierce  islanders  remained  to 
assert,  with  cunning  policy  and  texts  of  Scripture,  and,  if  they 
failed,  with  sharp  shot  and  cold  steel,  free  seas  and  free  trade 
for  all  the  nations  upon  earth.  He  saw  it,  and  his  country- 
men saw  it  too  :  and  therefore  the  Spanish  Armada  came  :  but 
of  that  hereafter.  And  Don  Guzman  knew  also,  by  hard 
experience,  that  these  same  islanders,  who  sat  in  Salterne's 
parlour,  talking  broad  Devon  through  their  noses,  were  no 
mere  counters  of  money  and  hucksters  of  goods  :  but  men  who, 
though  they  thoroughly  hated  fighting,  and  loved  making 


CHAP.  X.]  WITH  HIS  OWN  FLESH.  211 

money  instead,  could  fight,  upon  occasion,  after  a  very  dogged 
and  terrible  fashion,  as  well  as  the  bluest  blood  in  Spain ;  and 
who  sent  out  their  merchant  ships  armed  up  to  the  teeth,  and 
filled  with  men  who  had  been  trained  from  childhood  to  use 
those  arms,  and  had  orders  to  use  them  without  mercy  if  either 
Spaniard,  Portugal,  or  other  created  being  dared  to  stop  their 
money-making.  And  one  evening  he  waxed  quite  mad,  when, 
after  having  civilly  enough  hinted  that  if  Englishmen  came 
where  they  had  no  right  to  come,  they  might  find  themselves 
sent  back  again,  he  was  answered  by  a  volley  of — 

"We'll  see  that,  sir." 

"  Depends  on  who  says  '  No  right.'" 

"  You  found  might  right,"  said  another,  "  when  you  claimed 
the  Indian  seas ;  we  may  find  right  might  when  we  try  them." 

"  Try  them,  then,  gentlemen,  by  all  means,  if  it  shall  so 
please  your  worships  ;  and  find  the  sacred  flag  of  Spain  as  in- 
vincible as  ever  was  the  Roman  eagle." 

"  We  have,  sir.     Did  you  ever  hear  of  Francis  Drake1?" 

"  Or  of  George  Fenner  and  the  Portugals  at  the  Azores,  one 
against  seven1?" 

"  Or  of  John  Hawkins,  at  St.  Juan  d'Ulloa  ¥' 

"  You  are  insolent  burghers,"  said  Don  Guzman,  and  rose 
to  go. 

"  Sir,"  said  old  Salterne,  "  as  you  say,  we  are  burghers  and 
plain  men,  and  some  of  us  have  forgotten  ourselves  a  little,  per- 
haps ;  we  must  beg  you  to  forgive  our  want  of  manners,  and  to 
put  it  down  to  the  strength  of  my  wine  ;  for  insolent  we  never 
meant  to  be,  especially  to  a  noble  gentleman  and  a  foreigner." 

But  the  Don  would  not  be  pacified  ;  and  walked  out,  calling 
himself  an  ass  and  a  blinkard  for  having  demeaned  himself  to 
such  a  company,  forgetting  that  he  had  brought  it  on  himself. 

Salterne  (prompted  by  the  great  devil  Mammon)  came  up 
to  him  next  day,  and  begged  pardon  again  ;  promising,  more- 
over, that  none  of  those  who  had  been  so  rude  should  be  hence- 
forth asked  to  meet  him,  if  he  would  deign  to  honour  his  house 
once  more.  And  the  Don  actually  was  appeased,  and  went 
there  the  very  next  evening,  sneering  at  himself  the  whole  time 
for  going. 

"  Fool  that  I  am !  that  girl  has  bewitched  me,  I  believe. 
Go  I  must,  and  eat  my  share  of  dirt,  for  her  sake." 

So  he  went ;  and,  cunningly  enough,  hinted  to  old  Salterne 
that  he  had  taken  such  a  fancy  to  him,  and  felt  so  bound  by 
his  courtesy  and  hospitality,  that  he  might  not  object  to  tell 


212  HOW  MR.   SALTERNE  BAITED  1IIS  HOOK          [CHAP.  x. 

him  things  which  he  would  not  mention  to  every  one ;  for  that 
the  Spaniards  were  not  jealous  of  single  traders,  but  of  any 
general  attempt  to  deprive  them  of  their  hard-earned  wealth  : 
that,  however,  in  the  meanwhile,  there  were  plenty  of  oppor- 
tunities for  one  man  here  and  there  to  enrich  himself,  etc. 

Old  Salterne,  shrewd  as  he  was,  had  his  weak  point,  and 
the  Spaniard  had  touched  it ;  and  delighted  at  this  opportunity 
of  learning  the  mysteries  of  the  Spanish  monopoly,  he  often 
actually  set  Rose  on  to  draw  out  the  Don,  without  a  fear  (so 
blind  does  money  make  men)  lest  she  might  be  herself  drawn 
in.  For,  first,  he  held  it  as  impossible  that  she  would  think  of 
marrying  a  Popish  Spaniard  as  of  marrying  the  man  in  the 
moon ;  and,  next,  as  impossible  that  he  would  think  of  marry- 
ing a  burgher's  daughter  as  of  marrying  a  negress ;  and  trusted 
that  the  religion  of  the  one,  and  the  family  pride  of  the  other, 
would  keep  them  as  separate  as  beings  of  two  different  species. 
And  as  for  love  without  marriage,  if  such  a  possibility  ever 
crossed  him,  the  thought  was  rendered  absurd ;  on  Rose's  part 
by  her  virtue,  on  which  the  old  man  (and  rightly)  would  have 
staked  every  farthing  he  had  on  earth ;  and  on  the  Don's  part, 
by  a  certain  human  fondness  for  the  continuity  of  the  carotid 
artery  and  the  parts  adjoining,  for  which  (and  that  not  alto- 
gether justly,  seeing  that  Don  Guzman  cared  as  little  for  his 
own  life  as  he  did  for  his  neighbour's)  Mr.  Salterne  gave  him 
credit.  And  so  it  came  to  pass,  that  for  weeks  and  months 
the  merchant's  house  was  the  Don's  favourite  haunt,  and  he  saw 
the  Rose  of  Torridge  daily,  and  the  Rose  of  Torridge  heard  him. 

And  as  for  her,  poor  child,  she  had  never  seen  such  a  man. 
He  had,  or  seemed  to  have,  all  the  high-bred  grace  of  Frank, 
and  yet  he  was  cast  in  a  manlier  mould  ;  he  had  just  enough  of 
his  nation's  proud  self-assertion  to  make  a  woman  bow  before 
him  as  before  a  superior,  and  yet  tact  enough  to  let  it  very 
seldom  degenerate  into  that  boastfulness  of  which  the  Spaniards 
were  then  so  often  and  so  justly  accused.  He  had  marvels  to 
tell  by  flood  and  field  as  many  and  more  than  Amyas  ;  and  he 
told  them  with  a  grace  and  an  eloquence  of  which  modest, 
simple,  old  Amyas  possessed  nothing.  Besides,  he  was  on  the 
spot,  and  the  Leighs  were  not,  nor  indeed  were  any  of  her  old 
lovers  ;  and  what  could  she  do  but  amuse  herself  with  the  only 
person  who  came  to  hand? 

So  thought,  in  time,  more  ladies  than  she ;  for  the  country, 
the  north  of  it  at  least,  was  all  but  bare  just  then  of  young 
gallants,  what  with  the  Netherland  wars  and  the  Irish  wars ; 


CHAP.  X.]  WITH  HIS  OWN  FLESH.  213 

and  the  Spaniard  became  soon  welcome  at  every  house  for  many 
a  mile  round,  and  made  use  of  his  welcome  so  freely,  and  re- 
ceived so  much  unwonted  attention  from  fair  young  dames,  that 
his  head  might  have  been  a  little  turned,  and  Rose  Salterne 
have  thereby  escaped,  had  not  Sir  Richard  delicately  given 
him  to  understand  that  in  spite  of  the  free  and  easy  manners  of 
English  ladies,  brothers  were  just  as  jealous,  and  ladies'  honours 
at  least  as  inexpugnable,  as  in  the  land  of  demureness  and 
Duennas.  Don  Guzman  took  the  hint  well  enough,_and  kept 
on  good  terms  with  the  country  gentlemen  as  with  their 
daughters ;  and  to  tell  the  truth,  the  cunning  soldier  of  fortune 
found  his  account  in  being  intimate  with  all  the  ladies  he  could, 
in  order  to  prevent  old  Salterne  from  fancying  that  he  had  any 
peculiar  predilection  for  Mistress  Rose. 

Nevertheless,  Mr.  Salterne's  parlour  being  nearest  to  him, 
still  remained  his  most  common  haunt ;  where,  while  he  dis- 
coursed for  hours  about 

"  Antres  vast  and  deserts  idle, 
And  of  the  cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 
Of  Anthropophagi,  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders," 

to  the  boundless  satisfaction  of  poor  Rose's  fancy,  he  took  care 
to  season  his  discourse  with  scraps  of  mercantile  information, 
which  kept  the  old  merchant  always  expectant  and  hankering 
for  more,  and  made  it  worth  his  while  to  ask  the  Spaniard  in 
again  and  again. 

And  his  stories,  certainly,  were  worth  hearing.  He  seemed 
to  have  been  everywhere,  and  to  have  seen  everything :  born  in 
Peru,  and  sent  home  to  Spain  at  ten  years  old  ;  brought  up  in 
Italy ;  a  soldier  in  the  Levant ;  an  adventurer  to  the  East 
Indies;  again  in  America,  first  in  the  islands,  and  then  in 
Mexico.  Then  back  again  to  Spain,  and  thence  to  Rome,  and 
thence  to  Ireland.  Shipwrecked ;  captive  among  savages ; 
looking  down  the  craters  of  volcanoes ;  hanging  about  all  the 
courts  of  Europe ;  fighting  Turks,  Indians,  lions,  elephants, 
alligators,  and  what  not?  At  five -and -thirty  he  had  seen 
enough  for  three  lives,  and  knew  how  to  make  the  best  of  what 
he  had  seen. 

He  had  shared,  as  a  lad,  in  the  horrors  of  the  memorable 
siege  of  Famagusta,  and  had  escaped,  he  hardly  knew  himself 
how,  from  the  hands  of  the  victorious  Turks,  and  from  the 
certainty  (if  he  escaped  being  flayed  alive  or  impaled,  as  most 
of  the  captive  officers  were)  of  ending  his  life  as  a  Janissary  at 


214  HOW  MR.    SALTERNE  BAITED  HIS  HOOK          [CHAP.  X. 

the  Sultan's  court.  He  had  been  at  the  Battle  of  the  Three 
Kings ;  had  seen  Stukely  borne  down  by  a  hundred  lances,  un- 
conquered  even  in  death  ;  and  had  held  upon  his  knee  the  head 
of  the  dying  King  of  Portugal. 

And  now,  as  he  said  to  Rose  one  evening,  what  had  he  left 
on  earth,  but  a  heart  trampled  as  hard  as  the  pavement  1 
Whom  had  he  to  love  1  Who  loved  him  ?  He  had  nothing  for 
which  to  live  but  fame :  and  even  that  was  denied  to  him,  a 
prisoner  in  a  foreign  land. 

"Had  he  no  kindred,  thenl"  asked  pitying  Rose. 

"My  two  sisters  are  in  a  convent ; — they  had  neither  money 
nor  beauty ;  so  they  are  dead  to  me.  My  brother  is  a  Jesuit, 
so  he  is  dead  to  me.  My  father  fell  by  the  hands  of  Indians 
in  Mexico ;  my  mother,  a  penniless  widow,  is  companion,  duenna 
— whatsoever  they  may  choose  to  call  it — carrying  fans  and  lap- 
dogs  for  some  princess  or  other  there  in  Seville,  of  no  better 
blood  than  herself;  and  I — devil !  I  have  lost  even  my  sword 
— and  so  fares  the  house  of  De  Soto." 

Don  Guzman,  of  course,  intended  to  be  pitied,  and  pitied 
he  was  accordingly.  And  then  he  would  turn  the  conversation, 
and  begin  telling  Italian  stories,  after  the  Italian  fashion, 
according  to  his  auditory :  the  pathetic  ones  when  Rose  was 
present,  the  racy  ones  when  she  was  absent ;  so  that  Rose  had 
wept  over  the  sorrows  of  Juliet  and  Desdemona,  and  over  many 
another  moving  tale,  long  before  they  were  ever  enacted  on  an 
English  stage,  and  the  ribs  of  the  Bideford  worthies  had  shaken 
to  many  a  jest  which  Cinthio  and  Bandello's  ghosts  must  come 
and  make  for  themselves  over  again  if  they  wish  them  to  be  re- 
membered, for  I  shall  lend  them  no  shove  toward  immortality. 

And  so  on,  and  so  on.  What  need  of  more  words  ?  Before 
a  year  was  out,  Rose  Salterne  was  far  more  in  love  with  Don 
Guzman  than  he  with  her;  and  both  suspected  each  other's 
mind,  though  neither  hinted  at  the  truth ;  she  from  fear,  and 
he,  to  tell  the  truth,  from  sheer  Spanish  pride  of  blood.  For 
he  soon  began  to  find  out  that  he  must  compromise  that  blood 
by  marrying  the  heretic  burgher's  daughter,  or  all  his  labour 
would  be  thrown  away. 

He  had  seen  with  much  astonishment,  and  then  practised 
with  much  pleasure,  that  graceful  old  English  fashion  of  salut- 
ing every  lady  on  the  cheek  at  meeting,  which  (like  the  old 
Dutch  fashion  of  asking  young  ladies  out  to  feasts  without  their 
mothers)  used  to  give  such  cause  of  brutal  calumny  and  scandal 
to  the  coarse  minds  of  Romish  visitors  from  the  Continent ;  and 


CHAP.  X.]  WITH  HIS  OWN  FLESH.  215 

he  had  seen,  too,  fuming  with  jealous  rage,  more  than  one  Bide- 
ford  burgher,  redolent  of  onions,  profane  in  that  way  the  velvet 
cheek  of  Rose  Salterne. 

So,  one  day,  he  offered  his  salute  in  like  wise ;  but  he  did 
it  when  she  was  alone ;  for  something  within  (perhaps  a  guilty 
conscience)  whispered  that  it  might  be  hardly  politic  to  make 
the  proffer  in  her  father's  presence :  however,  to  his  astonish- 
ment, he  received  a  prompt  though  quiet  rebuff. 

"No,  sir;  you  should  know  that  my  cheek  is  not  for  you." 

"  Why,"  said  he,  stifling  his  anger,  "  it  seems  free  enough  to 
every  counter-jumper  in  the  town  !" 

Was  it  love,  or  simple  innocence,  which  made  her  answer 
apologetically  1 

"  True,  Don  Guzman  ;  but  they  are  my  equals." 

"And  I?" 

"  You  are  a  nobleman,  sir ;  and  should  recollect  that  you 
are  one." 

"  Well,"  said  he,  forcing  a  sneer,  "  it  is  a  strange  taste  to 
prefer  the  shopkeeper !" 

"Prefer?"  said  she,  forcing  a  laugh  in  her  turn;  "it  is  a 
mere  form  among  us.  They  are  nothing  to  me,  I  can  tell  you." 

"  And  I,  then,  less  than  nothing  1" 

Rose  turned  very  red ;  but  she  had  nerve  to  answer — 

"And  why  should  you  be  anything  to  me  1  You  have  con- 
descended too  much,  sir,  already  to  us,  in  giving  us  many  a — 
many  a  pleasant  evening.  You  must  condescend  no  further. 
You  wrong  yourself,  sir,  and  me  too.  No,  sir;  not  a  step  nearer! 
— I  will  not !  A  salute  between  equals  means  nothing :  but 
between  you  and  me — I  vow,  sir,  if  you  do  not  leave  me  this 
moment,  I  will  complain  to  my  father."  • 

"  Do  so,  madam  !  I  care  as  little  for  your  father's  anger,  as 
you  for  my  misery." 

"  Cruel ! "  cried  Rose,  trembling  from  head  to  foot. 

"I  love  you,  madam!"  cried  he,  throwing  himself  at  her 
feet.  "  I  adore  you  !  Never  mention  differences  of  rank  to  me 
more ;  for  I  have  forgotten  them  ;  forgotten  all  but  love,  all  but 
you,  madam  !  My  light,  my  lodestar,  my  princess,  my  goddess ! 
You  see  where  my  pride  is  gone ;  remember  I  plead  as  a  sup- 
pliant, a  beggar — though  one  who  may  be  one  day  a  prince,  a 
king !  ay,  and  a  prince  now,  a  very  Lucifer  of  pride  to  all  ex- 
cept to  you ;  to  you  a  wretch  who  grovels  at  your  feet,  and  cries, 
'  Have  mercy  on  me,  on  my  loneliness,  my  homelessness,  my 
friendlessness.'  Ah,  Rose  (madam  I  should  have  said,  forgive 


216          HOW  MR.   SALTERNE  BAITED  HIS  HOOK.          [CHAP.  X. 

the  madness  of  my  passion),  you  know  not  the  heart  which  you 
break.  Cold  Northerns,  you  little  dream  how  a  Spaniard  can 
love.  Love  ?  Worship,  rather ;  as  I  worship  you,  madam ;  as 
I  bless  the  captivity  which  brought  me  the  sight  of  you,  and 
the  ruin  which  first  made  me  rich.  Is  it  possible,  Saints  and 
Virgin !  do  my  own  tears  deceive  my  eyes,  or  are  there  tears, 
too,  in  those  radiant  orbs  1" 

"Go,  sir!"  cried  poor  Rose,  recovering  herself  suddenly; 
"  and  let  me  never  see  you  more."  And,  as  a  last  chance  for 
life,  she  darted  out  of  the  room. 

"  Your  slave  obeys  you,  madam,  and  kisses  your  hands  and 
feet  for  ever  and  a  day,"  said  the  cunning  Spaniard,  and  draw- 
ing himself  up,  walked  serenely  out  of  the  house  ;  while  she, 
poor  fool,  peeped  after  him  out  of  her  window  upstairs,  and  her 
heart  sank  within  her  as  she  watched  his  jaunty  and  careless 
air. 

How  much  of  that  rhapsody  of  his  was  honest,  how  much 
premeditated,  I  cannot  tell :  though  she,  poor  child,  began  to 
fancy  that  it  was  all  a  set  speech,  when  she  found  that  he  had 
really  taken  her  at  her  word,  and  set  foot  no  more  within  her 
father's  house.  So  she  reproached  herself  for  the  cruelest  of 
women ;  settled,  that  if  he  died,  she  should  be  his  murderess ; 
watched  for  him  to  pass  at  the  window,  in  hopes  that  he  might 
look  up,  and  then  hid  herself  in  terror  the  moment  he  appeared 
round  the  corner  ;  and  so  forth,  and  so  forth  : — one  love-making 
is  very  like  another,  and  has  been  so,  I  suppose,  since  that  first 
blessed  marriage  in  Paradise,  when  Adam  and  Eve  made  no 
love  at  all,  but  found  it  ready-made  for  them  from  heaven ;  and 
really  it  is  fiddling  while  Rome  is  burning,  to  spend  more  pages 
over  the  sorrows  of  poor  little  Rose  Salterne,  while  the  destinies 
of  Europe  are  hanging  on  the  marriage  between  Elizabeth  and 
Anjou  :  and  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  is  stirring  heaven  and  earth, 
and  Devonshire,  of  course,  as  the  most  important  portion  of  the 
said  earth,  to  carry  out  his  dormant  patent,  which  will  give  to 
England  in  due  time  (we  are  not  jesting  now)  Newfoundland, 
Nova  Scotia,  and  Canada,  and  the  Northern  States;  and  to 
Humphrey  Gilbert  himself  something  better  than  a  new  world, 
namely  another  world,  and  a  crown  of  glory  therein  which  never 
fades  away. 


CHAP.  XI.]    HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE     217 

CHAPTER  XL 

HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE. 

"  Misguided,  rash,  intruding  fool,  farewell ! 
Thou  see'st  to  be  too  busy  is  some  danger. " 

Hamlet. 

IT  is  the  spring  of  1582-3.  The  grey  March  skies  are  curdling 
hard  and  high  above  black  mountain  peaks.  The  keen  March 
wind  is  sweeping  harsh  and  dry  across  a  dreary  sheet  of  bog, 
still  red  and  yellow  with  the  stains  of  winter  frost.  One  brown 
knoll  alone  breaks  the  waste,  and  on  it  a  few  leafless  wind-clipt 
oaks  stretch  their  moss-grown  arms,  like  giant  hairy  spiders, 
above  a  desolate  pool  which  crisps  and  shivers  in  the  biting 
breeze,  while  from  beside  its  brink  rises  a  mournful  cry,  and 
sweeps  down,  faint  and  fitful,  amid  the  howling  of  the  wind. 

Along  the  brink  of  the  bog,  picking  their  road  among 
crumbling  rocks  and  green  spongy  springs,  a  company  of 
English  soldiers  are  pushing  fast,  clad  cap-a-pid  in  helmet  and 
quilted  jerkin,  with  arquebus  on  shoulder,  and  pikes  trailing 
behind  them  ;  stern  steadfast  men,  who,  two  years  since,  were 
working  the  guns  at  Smerwick  fort,  and  have  since  then  seen 
many  a  bloody  fray,  and  shall  see  more  before  they  die.  Two 
captains  ride  before  them  on  shaggy  ponies,  the  taller  in  armour, 
stained  and  rusted  with  many  a  storm  and  fray,  the  other  in 
brilliant  inlaid  cuirass  and  helmet,  gaudy  sash  and  plume,  and 
sword  hilt  glittering  with  gold,  a  quaint  contrast  enough  to  the 
meagre  garron  which  carries  him  and  his  finery.  Beside  them, 
secured  by  a  cord  which  a  pikeman  has  fastened  to  his  own 
wrist,  trots  a  bare-legged  Irish  kerne,  whose  only  clothing  is  his 
ragged  yellow  mantle,  and  the  unkempt  "glib"  of  hair,  through 
which  his  eyes  peer  out,  right  and  left,  in  mingled  fear  and 
stillenness.  He  is  the  guide  of  the  company,  in  their  hunt  after 
the  rebel  Baltinglas ;  and  woe  to  him  if  he  play  them  false. 

"  A  pleasant  country,  truly,  Captain  Raleigh,"  says  the 
dingy  officer  to  the  gay  one.  "I  wonder  how,  having  once 
escaped  from  it  to  Whitehall,  you  have  the  courage  to  come 
back  and  spoil  that  gay  suit  with  bog- water  and  mud." 

"A  very  pleasant  country,  my  friend  Amy  as;  what  you 
say  in  jest,  I  say  in  earnest." 

"  Hillo  !     Our  tastes  have  changed  places.     I  am  sick  of  it 


218  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  XI. 

already,  as  you  foretold.  Would  Heaven  that  I  could  hear  of 
some  adventure  Westward-ho  !  and  find  these  big  bones  swing- 
ing in  a  hammock  once  more.  Pray  what  has  made  you  so 
suddenly  in  love  with  bog  and  rock,  that  you  come  back  to 
tramp  them  with  us  1  I  thought  you  had  spied  out  the  naked- 
ness of  the  land  long  ago." 

"  Bog  and  rock  ?  Nakedness  of  the  land  ?  What  is  needed 
here  but  prudence  and  skill,  justice  and  law  1  This  soil,  see,  is 
fat  enough,  if  men  were  here  to  till  it.  These  rocks— who 
knows  what  minerals  they  may  hold?  I  hear  of  gold  and 
jewels  found  already  in  divers  parts ;  and  Daniel,  my  brother 
Humphrey's  German  assayer,  assures  me  that  these  rocks  are 
of  the  very  same  kind  as  those  which  yield  the  silver  in  Peru. 
Tut,  man  !  if  her  gracious  Majesty  would  but  bestow  on  me 
some  few  square  miles  of  this  same  wilderness,  in  seven  years' 
time  I  would  make  it  blossom  like  the  rose,  by  God's  good  help." 

"  Humph  !  I  should  be  more  inclined  to  stay  here,  then." 

"  So  you  shall,  and  be  my  agent,  if  you  will,  to  get  in  my 
mine-rents  and  my  corn-rents,  and  my  fishery-rents,  eh  1  Could 
you  keep  accounts,  old  knight  of  the  bear's-paw  ?" 

"  Well  enough  for  such  short  reckonings  as  yours  would  be, 
on  the  profit  side  at  least.  No,  no — I'd  sooner  carry  lime  all 
my  days  from  Cauldy  to  Bideford,  than  pass  another  twelve- 
month in  the  land  of  Ire,  among  the  children  of  wrath.  There 
is  a  curse  upon  the  face  of  the  earth,  I  believe." 

"  There  is  no  curse  upon  it,  save  the  old  one  of  man's  sin — 
'  Thorns  and  thistles  it  shall  bring  forth  to  thee.'  But  if  you 
root  up  the  thorns  and  thistles,  Amyas,  I  know  no  fiend  who 
can  prevent  your  growing  wheat  instead ;  and  if  you  till  the 
ground  like  a  man,  you  plough  and  harrow  away  nature's  curse, 
and  other  fables  of  the  schoolmen  beside,"  added  he,  in  that 
daring  fashion  which  afterwards  obtained  for  him  (and  never 
did  good  Christian  less  deserve  it)  the  imputation  of  Atheism. 

"  It  is  sword  and  bullet,  I  think,  that  are  needed  here,  before 
plough  and  harrow,  to  clear  away  some  of  the  curse.  Until  a 
few  more  of  these  Irish  lords  are  gone  where  the  Desmonds  are, 
there  is  no  peace  for  Ireland." 

"Humph!  not  so  far  wrong,'!  fear.  And  yet — Irish 
lords  1  These  very  traitors  are  better  English  blood  than  we 
who  hunt  them  down.  When  Yeo  here  slew  the  Desmond  the 
other  day,  he  no  more  let  out  a  drop  of  Irish  blood,  than  if  he 
had  slain  the  Lord  Deputy  himself." 

"  His  blood  be  on  his  own  head,"  said  Yeo.     "  He  looked 


CHAP.  XI.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  219 

as  wild  a  savage  as  the  worst  of  them,  more  shame  to  him  ; 
and  the  Ancient  here  had  nigh  cut  off  his  arm  before  he  told 
us  who  he  was :  and  then,  your  worship,  having  a  price  upon 
his  head,  and  like  to  bleed  to  death  too — 

"  Enough,  enough,  good  fellow,"  said  Raleigh.  "  Thou  hast 
done  what  was  given  thee  to  do.  Strange,  Amyas,  is  it  not  ? 
Noble  Normans  sunk  into  savages — Hibernis  ipsis  hiberniores  ! 
Is  there  some  uncivilising  venom  in  the  air  ?" 

"  Some  venom,  at  least,  which  makes  Englishmen  traitors. 
But  the  Irish  themselves  are  well  enough,  if  their  tyrants  would 
let  them  be.  See  now,  what  more  faithful  liegeman  has  her 
Majesty  than  the  Inchiquin,  who,  they  say,  is  Prince  of 
Themond,  and  should  be  king  of  all  Ireland,  if  every  man  had 
his  right  ?" 

"  Don't  talk  of  rights  in  the  land  of  wrongs,  man.  But 
the  Inchiquin  knows  well  that  the  true  Irish  Esau  has  no 
worse  enemy  than  his  supplanter,  the  Norman  Jacob.  And 
yet,  Amyas,  are  even  these  men  worse  than  we  might  be,  if  we 
had  been  bred  up  masters  over  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men,  in 
some  remote  land  where  law  and  order  had  never  come  ?  Look 
at  this  Desmond,  brought  up  a  savage  among  savages,  a  Papist 
among  Papists,  a  despot  among  slaves ;  a  thousand  easy  maidens 
deeming  it  honour  to  serve  his  pleasure,  a  thousand  wild  ruffians 
deeming  it  piety  to  fulfil  his  revenge  :  and  let  him  that  is  with- 
out sin  among  us  cast  the  first  stone." 

"Ay,"  went  on  Raleigh  to  himself,  as  the  conversation 
dropped.  "What  hadst  thou  been,  Raleigh,  hadst  thou  been 
that  Desmond  whose  lands  thou  now  desirest?  What  wilt 
thou  be  when  thou  hast  them  1  Will  thy  children  sink  down- 
wards, as  these  noble  barons  sank  1  Will  the  genius  of  tyranny 
and  falsehood  find  soil  within  thy  heart  to  grow  and  ripen  fruit  ? 
What  guarantee  hast  thou  for  doing  better  here  than  those  who 
went  before  thee  1  And  yet :  cannot  I  do  justice,  and  love 
mercy?  Can  I  not  establish  plantations,  build  and  sow,  and 
make  the  desert  valleys  laugh  with  corn?  Shall  I  not  have 
my  Spenser  with  me,  to  fill  me  with  all  noble  thoughts,  and 
raise  my  soul  to  his  heroic  pitch  ?  Is  not  this  true  knight- 
errantry,  to  redeem  to  peace  and  use,  and  to  the  glory  of  that 
glorious  Queen  whom  God  has  given  to  me,  a  generous  soil  and 
a  more  generous  race?  Trustful  and  tender-hearted  they  are — 
none  more ;  and  if  they  be  fickle  and  passionate,  will  not  that 
very  softness  of  temper,  which  makes  them  so  easily  led  to  evil, 
make  them  as  easy  to  be  led  towards  good  ?  Yes — here,  aw:iy 


V, 

220  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  XI. 

from  courts,  among  a  people  who  should  bless  me  as  their  bene- 
factor and  deliverer — what  golden  days  might  be  mine  !  And 
yet — is  this  but  another  angel's  mask  from  that  same  cunning 
fiend  Ambition's  stage  ]  And  will  my  house  be  indeed  the  house 
of  God,  the  foundations  of  which  are  loyalty,  and  its  bulwarks 
righteousness,  and  not  the  house  of  Fame,  whose  walls  are  of 
the  soap-bubble,  and  its  floor  a  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire  ? 
I  would  be  good  and  great — When  will  the  day  come  when  I 
shall  be  content  to  be  good,  and  yet  not  great,  like  this  same 
simple  Leigh,  toiling  on  by  my  side  to  do  his  duty,  with  no  more 
thought  for  the  morrow  than  the  birds  of  God  1  Greatness  ?  I 
have  tasted  that  cup  within  the  last  twelve  months ;  do  I  not 
know  that  it  is  sweet  in  the  mouth,  but  bitter  in  the  belly  1 
Greatness1?  And  was  not  Essex  great,  and  John  of  Austria 
great,  and  Desmond  great,  whose  race,  but  three  short  years 
ago,  had  stood  for  ages  higher  than  I  shall  ever  hope  to  climb 
— castles,  and  lands,  and  slaves  by  thousands,  and  five  hundred 
gentlemen  of  his  name,  who  had  vowed  to  forswear  God  before 
they  forswore  him  ;  and  well  have  they  kept  their  vow  !  And 
now,  dead  in  a  turf-hovel,  like  a  coney  in  a  burrow !  Leigh, 
what  noise  was  that  ?" 

"  An  Irish  howl,  I  fancied  :  but  it  came  from  off  the  bog ; 
it  may  be  only  a  plover's  cry." 

"  Something  not  quite  right,  Sir  Captain,  to  my  mind,"  said 
the  Ancient.  "  They  have  ugly  stories  here  of  pucks  and  ban- 
shees, and  what  not  of  ghosts.  There  it  was  again,  wailing 
just  like  a  woman.  They  say  the  banshee  cried  all  night  before 
Desmond  was  slain." 

"  Perhaps,  then,  this  one  may  be  crying  for  Baltinglas ;  for 
his  turn  is  likely  to  come  next — not  that  I  believe  in  such  old 
wives'  tales." 

"Shamus,  my  man,"  said  Amyas  to  the  guide,  "do  you 
hear  that  cry  in  the  bog  f 

The  guide  put  on  the  most  stolid  of  faces,  and  answered  in 
broken  English  : 

"  Shamus  hear  nought.  Perhaps — what  you  call  him  ? — 
fishing  in  ta  pool." 

"An  otter,  he  means,  and  I  believe  he  is  right.  Stay, 
no  !  Did  you  not  hear  it  then,  Shamus  1  It  was  a  woman's 
voice." 

"  Shamus  is  shick  in  his  ears  ever  since  Christmas." 

"  Shamus  will  go  after  Desmond  if  he  lies,"  said  Amyas. 
"  Ancient,  we  had  better  send  a  few  men  to  see  what  it  is  ; 


CHAP.  XI.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  221 

there  may  be  a  poor  soul  taken  by  robbers,  or  perhaps  starving 
to  death,  as  I  have  seen  many  a  one." 

"  And  I  too,  poor  wretches ;  and  by  no  fault  of  their  own 
or  ours  either :  but  if  their  lords  will  fall  to  quarrelling,  and 
then  drive  each  other's  cattle,  and  waste  each  other's  lands, 
sir,  you  know " 

"I  know,"  said  Amyas  impatiently;  "why  dost  not  take 
the  men,  and  gol" 

"  Cry  you  mercy,  noble  Captain  :  but — I  fear  nothing  born 
of  woman." 

"  Well,  what  of  that  1"  said  Amyas,  with  a  smile. 

"  But  these  pucks,  sir.  The  wild  Irish  do  say  that  they 
haunt  the  pools ;  and  they  do  no  manner  of  harm,  sir,  when 
you  are  coming  up  to  them  ;  but  when  you  are  past,  sir,  they 
jump  on  your  back  like  to  apes,  sir, — and  who  can  tackle  that 
manner  of  fiend  V 

"  Why,  then,  by  thine  own  showing,  Ancient,"  said  Raleigh, 
"  thou  may'st  go  and  see  all  safely  enough,  and  then  if  the 
puck  jumps  on  thee  as  thou  comest  back,  just  run  in  with  him 
here,  and  I'll  buy  him  of  thee  for  a  noble ;  or  thou  may'st  keep 
him  in  a  cage,  and  make  money  in  London  by  showing  him  for 
a  monster." 

"  Good  heavens  forefend,  Captain  Raleigh  !  but  you  talk 
rashly  !  But  if  I  must,  Captain  Leigh — 

'  Where  duty  calls 

To  brazen  walls, 

How  base  the  slave  who  flinches.' 

Lads,  who'll  follow  me1?" 

"  Thou  askest  for  volunteers,  as  if  thou  wert  to  lead  a  for- 
lorn hope.  Pull  away  at  the  usquebaugh,  man,  and  swallow 
Dutch  courage,  since  thine  English  is  oozed  away.  Stay,  I'll 
go  myself." 

"  And  I  with  you,"  said  Raleigh.  "  As  the  queen's  true 
knight-errant,  I  am  bound  to  be  behindhand  in  no  adventure. 
Who  knows  but  we  may  find  a  wicked  magician,  just  going  to 
cut  off  the  head  of  some  saffron -mantled  princess?"  and  he 
dismounted. 

"  Oh,  sirs,  sirs,  to  endanger  your  precious " 

"  Pooh,"  said  Raleigh.  "  I  wear  an  amulet,  and  have  a 
spell  of  art-magic  at  my  tongue's  end,  whereby,  Sir  Ancient, 
neither  can  a  ghost  see  me,  nor  I  see  them.  Come  with  us, 
Yeo,  the  Desmond -slayer,  and  we  will  shame  the  devil,  or  be 
shamed  by  him." 


222  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  xi. 

"  He  may  shame  me,  sir,  but  he  will  never  frighten  me," 
quoth  Yeo ;  "  but  the  bog,  Captains  ?" 

"  Tut !  Devonshire  men,  and  heath-trotters  born,  and  not 
know  our  way  over  a  peat  rnoor  ! " 

And  the  three  strode  away. 

They  splashed  and  scrambled  for  some  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
the  knoll,  while  the  cry  became  louder  and  louder  as  they 
neared. 

"  That's  neither  ghost  nor  otter,  sirs,  but  a  true  Irish  howl, 
as  Captain  Leigh  said ;  and  I'll  warrant  Master  Shamus  knew 
as  much  long  ago,"  said  Yeo. 

And  in  fact,  they  could  now  hear  plainly  the  "  Ochone, 
Ochonorie,"  of  some  wild  woman ;  and  scrambling  over  the 
boulders  of  the  knoll,  in  another  minute  came  full  upon  her. 

She  was  a  young  girl,  sluttish  and  unkempt,  of  course,  but 
fab*  enough  :  her  only  covering,  as  usual,  was  the  ample  yellow 
mantle.  There  she  sat  upon  a  stone,  tearing  her  black  dis- 
hevelled hair,  and  every  now  and  then  throwing  up  her  head, 
and  bursting  into  a  long  mournful  cry,  "  for  all  the  world,"  as 
Yeo  said,  "  like  a  dumb  four-footed  hound,  and  not  a  Christian 
soul" 

On  her  knees  lay  the  head  of  a  man  of  middle  age,  in  the 
long  soutane  of  a  Romish  priest.  One  look  at  the  attitude  of 
his  limbs  told  them  that  he  was  dead. 

The  two  paused  in  awe ;  and  Raleigh's  spirit,  susceptible 
of  all  poetical  images,  felt  keenly  that  strange  scene, — the 
bleak  and  bitter  sky,  the  shapeless  bog,  the  stunted  trees,  the 
savage  girl  alone  with  the  corpse  in  that  utter  desolation. 
And  as  she  bent  her  head  over  the  still  face,  and  called  wildly 
to  him  who  heard  her  not,  and  then,  utterly  unmindful  of  the 
intruders,  sent  up  again  that  dreary  wail  into  the  dreary  air, 
they  felt  a  sacred  horror,  which  almost  made  them  turn  away, 
and  leave  her  unquestioned :  but  Yeo,  whose  nerves  were  of 
tougher  fibre,  asked  quietly — 

"Shall  I  go  and  search  the  fellow,  Captain?" 

<4  Better,  I  think,"  said  Amyas. 

Raleigh  went  gently  to  the  girl,  and  spoke  to  her  in 
English.  She  looked  up  at  him,  his  armour  and  his  plume, 
with  wide  and  wondering  eyes,  and  then  shook  her  head,  and 
returned  to  her  lamentation. 

Raleigh  gently  laid  his  hand  on  her  arm,  and  lifted  her  up, 
while  Yeo  and  Amyas  bent  over  the  corpse. 

It  was  the  body  of  a  large  and  coarse-featured  man  :  but 


CHAP.  XI.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  223 

wasted  and  shrunk  as  if  by  famine  to  a  very  skeletpn.  The 
hands  and  legs  were  cramped  up,  and  the  trunk  bowed 
together,  as  if  the  man  had  died  of  cold  or  famine.  Yeo  drew 
back  the  clothes  from  the  thin  bosom,  while  the  girl  screamed 
and  wept,  but  made  no  effort  to  stop  him. 

"Ask  her  who  it  is]  Yeo,  you  know  a  little  Irish,"  said 
Amyas. 

He  asked,  but  the  girl  made  no  answer.  "  The  stubborn 
jade  won't  tell,  of  course,  sir.  If  she  were  but  a  man,  I'd 
make  her  soon  enough." 

"  Ask  her  who  killed  him  ?" 

"  No  one,  she  says ;  and  I  believe  she  says  true,  for  I  can 
find  no  wound.  The  man  has  been  starved,  sirs,  as  I  am  a  sin- 
ful man.  God  help  him,  though  he  is  a  priest ;  and  yet  he 
seems  full  enough  down  below.  What's  here  2  A  big  pouch, 
sirs,  stuffed  full  of  somewhat." 

"  Hand  it  hither." 

The  two  opened  the  pouch ;  papers,  papers,  but  no  scrap  of 
food.  Then  a  parchment.  They  unrolled  it. 

"  Latin,"  said  Amyas ;  "  you  must  construe,  Don  Scholar." 

"  Is  it  possible  V  said  Raleigh,  after  reading  a  moment. 
"  This  is  indeed  a  prize  !  This  is  Saunders  himself?" 

Yeo  sprang  up  from  the  body  as  if  he  had  touched  an  adder. 
"  Nick  Sauuders,  the  Legacy,  sir  ?" 

"  Nicholas  Saunders,  the  Legate." 

"  The  villain  !  why  did  not  he  wait  for  me  to  have  the  com- 
fort of  killing  him  1  Dog  !"  and  he  kicked  the  corpse  with  his 
foot. 

"  Quiet !  quiet !  Remember  the  poor  girl,"  said  Amyas,  as 
she  shrieked  at  the  profanation,  while  Raleigh  went  on,  half  to 
himself.  "  Yes,  this  is  Saunders.  Misguided  fool,  and  this  is 
the  end  !  To  this  thou  hast  come  with  thy  plotting  and  thy 
conspiring,  thy  lying  and  thy  boasting,  consecrated  banners  and 
Pope's  bulls,  Agnus  Deis  and  holy  waters,  the  blessing  of  all 
saints  and  angels,  and  thy  Lady  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  ! 
Thou  hast  called  on  the  Heavens  to  judge  between  thee  and  us, 
and  here  is  their  answer  !  What  is  that  in  his  hand,  Amyas  1 
Give  it  me.  A  pastoral  epistle  to  the  Earl  of  Ormond,  and  all 
nobles  of  the  realm  of  Ireland ;  '  To  all  who  groan  beneath  the 
loathsome  tyranny  of  an  illegitimate  adidteress,  etc.,  Nicholas 
Saunders,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Legate,  etc.'  Bah  !  and  this 
forsooth  was  thy  last  meditation  !  Incorrigible  pedant !  Victrix 
causa  Diis  placuit,  sed  victa  Catoni !" 


224  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP,  xi. 

He  ran  his  eye  through  various  other  documents,  written  in 
the  usual  strain  :  full  of  huge  promises  from  the  Pope  and  the 
King  of  Spain ;  frantic  and  filthy  slanders  against  Elizabeth, 
Burghley,  Leicester,  Essex  (the  elder),  Sidney,  and  every  great 
and  good  man  (never  mind  of  which  party)  who  then  upheld 
the  commonweal;  bombastic  attempts  to  terrify  weak  con- 
sciences, by  denouncing  endless  fire  against  those  who  opposed 
the  true  faith ;  fulsome  ascriptions  of  martyrdom  and  sanctity 
to  every  rebel  and  traitor  who  had  been  hanged  for  the  last 
twenty  years ;  wearisome  arguments  about  the  bull  In  Coena 
Domini,  Elizabeth's  excommunication,  the  nullity  of  English 
law,  the  sacred  duty  of  rebellion,  the  right  to  kill  a  prince 
impenitently  heretical,  and  the  like  insanities  and  villanies, 
which  may  be  read  at  large  in  Camden,  the  Phrenix  Britannicus, 
Fox's  Martyrs,  or,  surest  of  all,  in  the  writings  of  the  worthies 
themselves. 

With  a  gesture  of  disgust,  Raleigh  crammed  the  foul  stuff 
back  again  into  the  pouch.  Taking  it  with  them,  they  walked 
back  to  the  company,  and  then  remounting,  marched  away  once 
more  towards  the  lands  of  the  Desmonds ;  and  the  girl  was 
left  alone  with  the  dead. 

An  hour  had  passed,  when  another  Englishman  was  stand- 
ing by  the  wailing  girl,  and  round  him  a  dozen  shockheaded 
kernes,  skene  on  thigh  and  javelin  in  hand,  were  tossing  about 
their  tawny  rags,  and  adding  their  lamentations  to  those  of  the 
lonely  watcher. 

The  Englishman  was  Eustace  Leigh ;  a  layman  still,  but 
still  at  his  old  work.  By  two  years  of  intrigue  and  labour 
from  one  end  of  Ireland  to  the  other,  he  had  been  trying  to 
satisfy  his  conscience  for  rejecting  "  the  higher  calling  "  of  the 
celibate ;  for  mad  hopes  still  lurked  within  that  fiery  heart. 
His  brow  was  wrinkled  now ;  his  features  harshened ;  the  scar 
upon  his  face,  and  the  slight  distortion  which  accompanied  it, 
was  hidden  by  a  bushy  beard  from  all  but  himself;  and  he 
never  forgot  it  for  a  day,  nor  forgot  who  had  given  it  to  him. 

He  had  been  with  Desmond,  wandering  in  moor  and  moss 
for  many  a  month  in  danger  of  his  life ;  and  now  he  was  on  his 
way  to  James  Fitz-Eustace,  Lord  Baltinglas,  to  bring  him  the 
news  of  Desmond's  death ;  and  with  him  a  remnant  of  the 
clan,  who  were  either  too  stouthearted,  or  too  desperately 
stained  with  crime,  to  seek  peace  from  the  English,  and,  as 
their  fellows  did,  find  it  at  once  and  freely. 

There  Eustace  stood,  looking  down  on  all  that  was  left  of 


CHAP.  XI.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  225 

the  most  sacred  personage  of  Ireland ;  the  man  who,  as  he  once 
had  hoped,  was  to  regenerate  his  native  land,  and  bring  the 
proud  island  of  the  West  once  more  beneath  that  gentle  yoke, 
in  which  united  Christendom  laboured  for  the  commonweal  of 
the  universal  Church.  There  he  was,  and  with  him  all  Eustace's 
dreams,  in  the  very  heart  of  that  country  which  he  had  vowed, 
and  believed  as  he  vowed,  was  ready  to  rise  in  arms  as  one 
man,  even  to  the  baby  at  the  breast  (so  he  had  said),  in  ven- 
geance against  the  Saxon  heretic,  and  sweep  the  hated  name  of 
Englishman  into  the  deepest  abysses  of  the  surge  which  walled 
her  coasts ;  with  Spain  and  the  Pope  to  back  him,  and  the 
wealth  of  the  Jesuits  at  his  command  ;  in  the  midst  of  faithful 
Catholics,  valiant  soldiers,  noblemen  who  had  pledged  them- 
selves to  die  for  the  cause,  serfs  who  worshipped  him  as  a 
demigod — starved  to  death  in  a  bog !  It  was  a  pretty  plain 
verdict  on  the  reasonableness  of  his  expectations ;  but  not  to 
Eustace  Leigh. 

It  was  a  failure,  of  course ;  but  it  was  an  accident ;  indeed, 
to  have  been  expected,  in  a  wicked  world  whose  prince  and 
master,  as  all  knew,  was  the  devil  himself;  indeed,  proof  of 
the  righteousness  of  the  cause — for  when  had  the  true  faith 
been  other  than  persecuted  and  trampled  under  foot  ?  If  one 
came  to  think  of  it  with  eyes  purified  from  the  tears  of  carnal 
impatience,  what  was  it  but  a  glorious  martyrdom  ? 

"  Blest  Saunders  !"  murmured  Eustace  Leigh ;  "  let  me  die 
the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  this ! 
Ora  pro  me,  most  excellent  martyr,  while  I  dig  thy  grave  upon 
this  lonely  moor,  to  wait  there  for  thy  translation  to  one  of 
those  stately  shrines,  which,  cemented  by  the  blood  of  such  as 
thee,  shall  hereafter  rise  restored  toward  heaven,  to  make  this 
land  once  more  '  The  Isle  of  Saints.'" 

The  corpse  was  buried ;  a  few  prayers  said  hastily ;  and 
Eustace  Leigh  was  away  again,  not  now  to  find  Baltinglas ;  for 
it  was  more  than  his  life  was  worth.  The  girl  had  told  him  of 
the  English  soldiers  who  had  passed,  and  he  knew  that  they 
would  reach  the  earl  probably  before  he  did.  The  game  was 
up ;  all  was  lost.  So  he  retraced  his  steps,  as  a  desperate 
resource,  to  the  last  place  where  he  would  be  looked  for :  and 
after  a  month  of  disguising,  hiding,  and  other  expedients,  found 
himself  again  in  his  native  county  of  Devon,  while  Fitz-Eustace 
Viscount  Baltinglas  had  taken  ship  for  Spain,  having  got  little 
by  his  famous  argument  to  Ormond  in  behalf  of  his  joining  the 
Church  of  Rome,  "  Had  not  thine  ancestor,  blessed  Thomas  of 

Q 


226  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  XI. 

Canterbury,  died  for  the  Church  of  Rome,  thou  hadst  never  been 
Earl  of  Ormond."  The  premises  were  certainly  sounder  than 
those  of  his  party  were  wont  to  be ;  for  it  was  to  expiate  the 
murder  of  that  turbulent  hero  that  the  Ormond  lands  had 
been  granted  by  Henry  II.  :  but  as  for  the  conclusion  there- 
from, it  was  much  on  a  par  with  the  rest. 

And  now  let  us  return  to  Raleigh  and  Amyas,  as  they  jog 
along  their  weary  road.  They  have  many  things  to  talk  of; 
for  it  is  but  three  days  since  they  met. 

Amyas,  as  you  see,  is  coming  fast  into  Raleigh's  old  opinion 
of  Ireland.  Raleigh,  under  the  inspiration  of  a  possible  grant 
of  Desmond's  lands,  looks  on  bogs  and  rocks  transfigured  by 
his  own  hopes  and  fancy,  as  if  by  the  glory  of  a  rainbow.  He 
looked  at  all  things  so,  noble  fellow,  even  thirty  years  after, 
when  old,  worn  out,  and  ruined ;  well  for  him  had  it  been 
otherwise,  and  his  heart  had  grown  old  with  his  head  !  Amyas, 
who  knows  nothing  about  Desmond's  lands,  is  puzzled  at  the 
change. 

"  Why,  what  is  this,  Raleigh  ?  You  are  like  children 
sitting  in  the  market-place,  and  nothing  pleases  you.  You 
wanted  to  get  to  Court,  and  you  have  got  there ;  and  are  lord 
and  master,  I  hear,  or  something  very  like  it,  already — and  as 
soon  as  Fortune  stuffs  your  mouth  full  of  sweetmeats,  do  you 
turn  informer  on  her?" 

Raleigh  laughed  insignificantly  :  but  was  silent. 

"  And  how  is  your  friend  Mr.  Secretary  Spenser,  who  was 
with  us  at  Smerwick  ?" 

"  Spenser  1  He  has  thriven  even  as  I  have ;  and  he  has 
found,  as  I  have,  that  in  making  one  friend  at  Court  you  make 
ten  foes ;  but  '  Oderint  Duni  metuant '  is  no  more  my  motto 
than  his,  Leigh.  I  want  to  be  great— great  I  am  already,  they 
say,  if  princes'  favour  can  swell  the  frog  into  an  ox  ;  but  I 
want  to  be  liked,  loved — I  want  to  see  people  smile  when  I 
enter." 

"  So  they  do,  I'll  warrant,"  said  Amyas. 

"So  do  hyenas,"  said  Raleigh;  "grin  because  they  are 
hungry,  and  I  may  throw  them  a  bone;  I'll  throw  you  one 
now,  old  lad,  or  rather  a  good  sirloin  of  beef,  for  the  sake  of 
your  smile.  That's  honest,  at  least,  I'll  warrant,  whosoever's 
else  is  not.  Have  you  heard  of  my  brother  Humphrey's  new 
project  ?" 

"How  should  I  hear  anything  in  this  waste  howling 
wilderness? " 


CHAP.  XI.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  227 

"  Kiss  hands  to  the  wilderness,  then,  and  come  with  me  to 
Newfoundland ! " 

"You  to  Newfoundland?" 

"  Yes.  I  to  Newfoundland,  unless  my  little  matter  here  is 
settled  at  once.  Gloriana  don't  know  it,  and  shan't  till  I'm 
off.  She'd  send  me  to  the  Tower,  I  think,  if  she  caught  me 
playing  truant.  I  could  hardly  get  leave  to  come  hither ;  but 
I  must  out,  and  try  my  fortune.  I  am  over  ears  in  debt  already, 
and  sick  of  courts  and  courtiers.  Humphrey  must  go  next 
spring  and  take  possession  of  his  kingdom  beyond  seas,  or  his 
patent  expires ;  and  with  him  I  go,  and  you  too,  my  circum- 
navigating giant." 

And  then  Raleigh  expounded  to  Amyas  the  details  of  the 
great  Newfoundland  scheme,  which  whoso  will  may  read  in  the 
pages  of  Hakluyt. 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Raleigh's  half-brother,  held  a 
patent  for  "  planting  "  the  lands  of  Newfoundland  and  "  Meta 
Incognita"  (Labrador).  He  had  attempted  a  voyage  thither 
with  Raleigh  in  1578,  whereof  I  never  could  find  any  news, 
save  that  he  came  back  again,  after  a  heavy  brush  with  some 
Spanish  ships  (in  which  his  best  captain,  Mr.  Morgan,  was 
killed),  having  done  nothing,  and  much  impaired  his  own 
estate :  but  now  he  had  collected  a  large  sum ;  Sir  Gilbert 
Peckham  of  London,  Mr.  Hayes  of  South  Devon,  and  various 
other  gentlemen,  of  whom  more  hereafter,  had  adventured  their 
money ;  and  a  considerable  colony  was  to  be  sent  out  the  next 
year,  with  miners,  assayers,  and,  what  was  more,  Parmenius 
Budaeus,  Frank's  old  friend,  who  had  come  to  England  full  of 
thirst  to  see  the  wonders  of  the  New  World ;  and  over  and 
above  this,  as  Raleigh  told  Amyas  in  strictest  secrecy,  Adrian 
Gilbert,  Humphrey's  brother,  was  turning  every  stone  at  Court 
for  a  patent  of  discovery  in  the  North-West ;  and  this  New- 
foundland colony,  though  it  was  to  produce  gold,  silver, 
merchandise,  and  what  not,  was  but  a  basis  of  operations,  a  half- 
way house  from  whence  to  work  out  the  North-West  passage  to 
the  Indies — that  golden  dream,  as  fatal  to  English  valour  as 
the  Guiana  one  to  Spanish — and  yet  hardly,  hardly  to  be  re- 
gretted, when  we  remember  the  seamanship,  the  science,  the 
chivalry,  the  heroism,  unequalled  in  the  history  of  the  English 
nation,  which  it  has  called  forth  among  those  our  later  Arctic 
voyagers,  who  have  combined  the  knight-errantry  of  the  middle 
age  with  the  practical  prudence  of  the  modern,  and  dared  for 
duty  more  than  Cortez  or  Pizarro  dared  for  gold. 


228  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  XI. 

Ainyas,  simple  fellow,  took  all  in  greedily ;  he  knew  enough 
of  the  dangers  of  the  Magellan  passage  to  appreciate  the  bound- 
less value  of  a  road  to  the  East  Indies  which  would  (as  all 
supposed  then)  save  half  the  distance,  and  be  as  it  were  a 
private  possession  of  the  English,  safe  from  Spanish  interfer- 
ence ;  and  he  listened  reverently  to  Sir  Humphrey's  quaint 
proofs,  half  true,  half  fantastic,  of  such  a  passage,  which  Raleigh 
detailed  to  him — of  the  Primum  Mobile,  and  its  diurnal  motion 
from  east  to  west,  in  obedience  to  which  the  sea-current  flowed 
westward  ever  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  being  unable 
to  pass  through  the  narrow  strait  between  South  America  and 
the  Antarctic  continent,  rushed  up  the  American  shore,  as  the 
Gulf  Stream,  and  poured  north-westward  between  Greenland 
and  Labrador  towards  Cathay  and  India ;  of  that  most  crafty 
argument  of  Sir  Humphrey's — how  Aristotle  in  his  book  De 
Mundo,  and  Simon  Gryneus  in  his  annotations  thereon,  declare 
that  the  world  (the  Old  World)  is  an  island,  compassed  by 
that  which  Homer  calls  the  river  Oceanus  ;  ergo,  the  New 
World  is  an  island  also,  and  there  is  a  North- West  passage ;  of 
the  three  brothers  (names  unknown)  who  had  actually  made 
the  voyage,  and  named  what  was  afterwards  called  Davis's 
Strait  after  themselves :  of  the  Indians  who  were  cast  ashore 
in  Germany  in  the  reign  of  Frederic  Barbarossa,  who,  as  Sir 
Humphrey  had  learnedly  proved  per  modum  tollendi,  could 
have  come  only  by  the  North- West;  and  above  all,  of  Salvaterra, 
the  Spaniard,  who  in  1568  had  told  Sir  Henry  Sidney  (Philip's 
father),  there  in  Ireland,  how  he  had  spoken  with  a  Mexican 
friar  named  Urdaneta,  who  had  himself  come  from  Mar  del 
Zur  (the  Pacific)  into  Germany  by  that  very  North-West  passage; 
at  which  last  Amyas  shook  his  head,  and  said  that  friars  were 
liars,  and  seeing  believing ;  "  but  if  you  must  needs  have  an 
adventure,  you  insatiable  soul  you,  why  not  try  for  the  golden 
city  of  Manoa1?" 

"  Manoa?"  asked  Raleigh,  who  had  heard,  as  most  had,  dim 
rumours  of  the  place.  "  What  do  you  know  of  it  V 

Whereon  Amyas  told  him  all  that  he  had  gathered  from  the 
Spaniard ;  and  Raleigh,  in  his  turn,  believed  every  word. 

"Humph!"  said  he  after  a  long  silence.  "To  find  that 
golden  Emperor ;  offer  him  help  and  friendship  from  the  Queen 
of  England ;  defend  him  against  the  Spaniards ;  if  we  became 
strong  enough,  conquer  back  all  Peru  from  the  Popish  tyrants, 
and  reinstate  him  on  the  throne  of  the  Incas,  with  ourselves  for 
his  body-guard,  as  the  Norman  Varangians  were  to  the  effemin- 


CHAP,  xi.]  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  229 

ate  Emperors  of  Byzant — Hey,  Amyas  1  You  would  make  a 
gallant  chieftain  of  Varangs.  We'll  do  it,  lad  !" 

"We'll  try,"  said  Amyas;  "but  we  must  be  quick,  for 
there's  one  Berreo  sworn  to  carry  out  the  quest  to  the  death ; 
and  if  the  Spaniards  once  get  thither,  their  plan  of  works  will 
be  much  more  like  Pizarro's  than  like  yours ;  and  by  the  time 
we  come,  there  will  be  neither  gold  nor  city  left." 

"  Nor  Indians  either,  I'll  warrant  the  butchers ;  but,  lad,  I 
am  promised  to  Humphrey ;  I  have  a  bark  fitting  out  already, 
and  all  I  have,  and  more,  adventured  in  her ;  so  Manoa  must 
wait." 

"  It  will  wait  well  enough,  if  the  Spaniards  prosper  no  better 
on  the  Amazon  than  they  have  done ;  but  must  I  come  with 
you "!  To  tell  the  truth,  I  am  quite  shore-sick,  and  to  sea  I 
must  go.  What  will  my  mother  say  V 

"  I'll  manage  thy  mother,"  said  Raleigh  ;  and  so  he  did ;  for, 
to  cut  a  long  story  short,  he  went  back  the  month  after,  and  he 
not  only  took  home  letters  from  Amyas  to  his  mother,  but  so 
impressed  on  that  good  lady  the  enormous  profits  and  honours 
to  be  derived  from  Meta  Incognita,  and  (which  was  most  true) 
the  advantage  to  any  young  man  of  sailing  with  such  a  general 
as  Humphrey  Gilbert,  most  pious  and  most  learned  of  seamen 
and  of  cavaliers,  beloved  and  honoured  above  all  his  compeers 
by  Queen  Elizabeth,  that  she  consented  to  Amyas's  adventuring 
in  the  voyage  some  two  hundred  pounds  which  had  come  to  him 
as  his  share  of  prize-money,  after  the  ever  memorable  circum- 
navigation. For  Mrs.  Leigh,  be  it  understood,  was  no  longer 
at  Burrough  Court.  By  Frank's  persuasion,  she  had  let  the  old 
place,  moved  up  to  London  with  her  eldest  son,  and  taken  for 
herself  a  lodging  somewhere  by  Palace  Stairs,  which  looked  out 
upon  the  silver  Thames  (for  Thames  was  silver  then),  with  its 
busy  ferries  and  gliding  boats,  across  to  the  pleasant  fields  of 
Lambeth,  and  the  Archbishop's  Palace,  and  the  wooded  Surrey 
hills ;  and  there  she  spent  her  peaceful  days,  close  to  her  Frank 
and  to  the  Court.  Elizabeth  would  have  had  her  re-enter  it, 
offering  her  a  small  place  in  the  household  :  but  she  declined, 
saying  that  she  was  too  old  and  heart -weary  for  aught  but 
prayer.  So  by  prayer  she  lived,  under  the  sheltering  shadow 
of  the  tall  minster,  where  she  went  morn  and  even  to  worship, 
and  to  entreat  for  the  two  in  whom  her  heart  was  bound  up ; 
and  Frank  slipped  in  every  day  if  but  for  five  minutes,  and 
brought  with  him  Spenser,  or  Raleigh,  or  Dyer,  or  Budaeus,  or 
sometimes  Sidney's  self:  and  there  was  talk  of  high  and  holy 


230  HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  [CHAP.  xi. 

tilings,  of  which  none  could  speak  better  than  could  she ;  and 
each  guest  went  from  that  hallowed  room  a  humbler  and  yet  a 
loftier  man.  So  slipped  on  the  peaceful  months,  and  few  and 
far  between  came  Irish  letters,  for  Ireland  was  then  farther  from 
Westminster  than  is  the  Black  Sea  now ;  but  those  were  days 
in  which  wives  and  mothers  had  learned  (as  they  have  learned 
once  more,  sweet  souls!)  to  walk  by  faith  and  not  by  sight  for 
those  they  love :  and  Mrs.  Leigh  was  content  (though  when 
was  she  not  content  ?)  to  hear  that  Amyas  was  winning  a  good 
report  as  a  brave  and  prudent  officer,  sober,  just,  and  faithful, 
beloved  and  obeyed  alike  by  English  soldiers  and  Irish  kernes. 

Those  two  years,  and  the  one  which  followed,  were  the 
happiest  which  she  had  known  since  her  husband's  death.  But 
the  cloud  was  fast  coming  up  the  horizon,  though  she  saw  it  not. 
A  little  longer,  and  the  sun  would  be  hid  for  many  a  wintry  day. 

Amyas  went  to  Plymouth  (with  Yeo,  of  course,  at  his  heels), 
and  there  beheld,  for  the  first  time,  the  majestic  countenance  of 
the  philosopher  of  Compton  Castle.  He  lodged  with  Drake,  and 
found  him  not  over-sanguine  as  to  the  success  of  the  voyage. 

"  For  learning  and  manners,  Amyas,  there's  not  his  equal ; 
and  the  queen  may  well  love  him,  and  Devon  be  proud  of  him  • 
but  book-learning  is  not  business  ;  book-learning  didn't  get  me 
round  the  world ;  book-learning  didn't  make  Captain  Hawkins, 
nor  his  father  neither,  the  best  shipbuilders  from  Hull  to  Cadiz; 
and  book-learning,  I  very  much  fear,  won't  plant  Newfoundland." 

However,  the  die  was  cast,  and  the  little  fleet  of  five  sail 
assembled  in  Cawsand  Bay.  Amyas  was  to  go  as  a  gentleman 
adventurer  on  board  of  Raleigh's  bark  ;  Raleigh  himself,  how- 
ever, at  the  eleventh  hour,  had  been  forbidden  by  the  queen  to 
leave  England.  Ere  they  left,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's  picture 
was  painted  by  some  Plymouth  artist,  to  be  sent  up  to  Elizabeth 
in  answer  to  a  letter  and  a  gift  sent  by  Raleigh,  which,  as  a 
specimen  of  the  men  and  of  the  time,  I  here  transcribe  : — 

1  "  BROTHER — I  have  sent  you  a  token  from  her  Majesty, 
an  anchor  guided  by  a  lady,  as  you  see.  And  further,  her 
Highness  willed  me  to  send  you  word,  that  she  wisheth  you  as 
great  good  hap  and  safety  to  your  ship  as  if  she  were  there  in 
person,  desiring  you  to  have  care  of  yourself  as  of  that  which 
she  tendereth ;  and,  therefore,  for  her  sake,  you  must  provide 
for  it  accordingly.  Furthermore,  she  commandeth  that  you 

1  This  letter  was  a  few  years  since  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Pomeroy 
Gilbert,  fort-major  at  Dartmouth,  a  descendant  of  the  Admiral's. 


CHAP,  xi.]  Mi-yr  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.  231 

leave  your  picture  with  her.  For  the  rest  I  leave  till  our  meet- 
ing, or  to  the  report  of  the  bearer,  who  would  needs  be  the 
messenger  of  this  good  news.  So  I  commit  you  to  the  will  ;uid 
protection  of  God,  who  send  us  such  life  and  death  as  he  shall 
please,  or  hath  appointed. 

"  Richmond,  this  Friday  morning, 
"  Your  true  Brother, 

"W.  RALEIGH." 

"Who  would  not  die,  sir,  for  such  a  woman1}"  said  Sir 
Humphrey  (and  he  said  truly),  as  he  showed  that  letter  to 
Amyas. 

"  Who  would  not  ?     But  she  bids  you  rather  live  for  her." 

"  I  shall  do  both,  young  man ;  and  for  God  too,  I  trust. 
We  are  going  in  God's  cause ;  we  go  for  the  honour  of  God's 
Gospel,  for  the  deliverance  of  poor  infidels  led  captive  by  the 
devil ;  for  the  relief  of  my  distressed  countrymen  unemployed 
within  this  narrow  isle;  and  to  God  we  commit  our  cause. 
We  fight  against  the  devil  himself;  and  stronger  is  He  that  is 
within  us  than  he  that  is  against  us." 

Some  say  that  Raleigh  himself  came  down  to  Plymouth, 
accompanied  the  fleet  a  day's  sail  to  sea,  and  would  have  given 
her  Majesty  the  slip,  and  gone  with  them  Westward-ho,  but 
for  Sir  Humphrey's  advice.  It  is  likely  enough  :  but  I  cannot 
find  evidence  for  it.  At  all  events,  on  the  llth  June  the  fleet 
sailed  out,  having,  says  Mr.  Hayes,  "  in  number  about  260  men, 
among  whom  we  had  of  every  faculty  good  choice,  as  shipwrights, 
masons,  carpenters,  smiths,  and  suchlike,  requisite  for  such  an 
action;  also  mineral  men  and  refiners.  Beside,  for  solace  of 
our  people  and  allurement  of  the  savages,  we  were  provided  of 
musique  in  good  variety ;  not  omitting  the  least  toys,  as  morris- 
dancers,  hobby-horses,  and  May-like  conceits,  to  delight  the 
savage  people,  whom  we  intended  to  win  by  all  fair  means 
possible."  An  armament  complete  enough,  even  to  that  tender- 
ness towards  the  Indians,  which  is  so  striking  a  feature  of  the 
Elizabethan  seamen  (called  out  in  them,  perhaps,  by  horror  at 
the  Spanish  cruelties,  as  well  as  by  their  more  liberal  creed), 
and  to  the  daily  service  of  God  on  board  of  every  ship,  accord- 
ing to  the  simple  old  ins  tractions  of  Captain  John  Hawkins  to 
one  of  his  little  squadrons,  "  Keep  good  company ;  beware  of 
fire  ;  serve  God  daily ;  and  love  one  another  " — an  armament, 
in  short,  complete  in  all  but  men.  The  sailors  had  been  picked 
up  hastily  and  anywhere,  and  soon  proved  themselves  a  mutin- 


232    HOW  EUSTACE  LEIGH  MET  THE  POPE'S  LEGATE.   [CHAP.  XI. 

ous,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  bark  Swallow,  a  piratical  set.  The 
mechanics  were  little  better.  The  gentlemen-adventurers,  puffed 
up  with  vain  hopes  of  finding  a  new  Mexico,  became  soon  dis- 
appointed and  surly  at  the  hard  practical  reality  ;  while  over 
all  was  the  head  of  a  sage  and  an  enthusiast,  a  man  too  noble 
to  suspect  others,  and  too  pure  to  make  allowances  for  poor 
dirty  human  weaknesses.  He  had  got  his  scheme  perfect  upon 
paper;  well  for  him,  and  for  his  company,  if  he  had  asked 
Francis  Drake  to  translate  it  for  him  into  fact !  As  early  as 
the  second  day,  the  seeds  of  failure  began  to  sprout  above 
ground.  The  men  of  Raleigh's  bark,  the  Vice-Admiral,  sud- 
denly found  themselves  seized,  or  supposed  themselves  seized, 
with  a  contagious  sickness,  and  at  midnight  forsook  the  fleet, 
and  went  back  to  Plymouth ;  whereto  Mr.  Hayes  can  only  say, 
"  The  reason  I  never  could  understand.  Sure  I  am  that  Mr. 
Raleigh  spared  no  cost  in  setting  them  forth.  And  so  I  leave 
it  unto  God !" 

But  Amyas  said  more.  He  told  Butler  the  captain  plainly 
that,  if  the  bark  went  back,  he  would  not ;  that  he  had  seen 
enough  of  ships  deserting  their  consorts  ;  that  it  should  never 
be  said  of  him  that  he  had  followed  Winter's  example,  and 
that,  too,  on  a  fair  easterly  wind ;  and  finally  that  he  had  seen 
Doughty  hanged  for  trying  to  play  such  a  trick,  and  that  he 
might  see  others  hanged  too  before  he  died.  Whereon  Captain 
Butler  offered  to  draw  and  fight,  to  which  Amyas  showed  no 
repugnance  ;  whereon  the  captain,  having  taken  a  second  look 
at  Amyas's  thews  and  sinews,  reconsidered  the  matter,  and 
offered  to  put  Amyas  on  board  of  Sir  Humphrey's  Delight,  if 
he  could  find  a  crew  to  row  him. 

Amyas  looked  around. 

"Are  there  any  of  Sir  Francis  Drake's  men  on  board?" 

"Three,  sir,"  said  Yeo.     "Robert  Drew,  and  two  others." 

"Pelicans!"  roared  Amyas,  "you  have  been  round  the 
world,  and  will  you  turn  back  from  Westward-ho  1" 

There  was  a  moment's  silence,  and  then  Drew  came  forward. 

"  Lower  us  a  boat,  captain,  and  lend  us  a  caliver  to  make 
signals  with,  while  I  get  my  kit  on  deck ;  I'll  after  Captain 
Leigh,  if  I  row  him  aboard  all  alone  to  my  own  hands." 

"  If  I  ever  command  a  ship,  I  will  not  forget  you,"  said 
Amyas. 

"  Nor  us  either,  sir,  we  hope ;  for  we  haven't  forgotten  you 
and  your  honest  conditions,"  said  both  the  other  Pelicans  ;  and 
so  away  over  the  side  went  all  the  five,  and  pulled  away  after 


CHAP.  XII.]        HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  DINED,  ETC.  233 

the  admiral's  lantern,  firing  shots  at  intervals  as  signals. 
Luckily  for  the  five  desperadoes,  the  night  was  all  but  calm. 
They  got  on  board  before  the  morning,  and  so  away  into  the 
boundless  West.1 


CHAPTER  XII. 

HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE. 

"  Three  lords  sat  drinking  late  yestreen, 
And  ere  they  paid  the  lawing, 
They  set  a  combat  them  between, 
To  fight  it  in  the  dawing." — Scotch  Ballad. 

EVERY  one  who  knows  Bideford  cannot  but  know  Bideford 
Bridge  ;  for  it  is  the  very  omphalos,  cynosure,  and  soul,  around 
which  the  town,  as  a  body,  has  organised  itself ;  and  as  Edin- 
burgh is  Edinburgh  by  virtue  of  its  castle,  Rome  Rome  by 
virtue  of  its  capitol,  and  Egypt  Egypt  by  virtue  of  its  Pyra- 
mids, so  is  Bideford  Bideford  by  virtue  of  its  Bridge.  But 
all  do  not  know  the  occult  powers  which  have  advanced  and 
animated  the  said  wondrous  bridge  for  now  five  hundred  years, 
and  made  it  the  chief  wonder,  according  to  Prince  and  Fuller, 
of  this  fair  land  of  Devon  :  being  first  an  inspired  bridge ;  a 
soul -saving  bridge;  an  alms -giving  bridge;  an  educational 
bridge ;  a  sentient  bridge ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  a  dinner- 
giving  bridge.  All  do  not  know  how,  when  it  began  to  be 
built  some  half  mile  higher  up,  hands  invisible  carried  the 
stones  down-stream  each  night  to  the  present  site ;  until  Sir 
Richard  Gurney,  parson  of  the  parish,  going  to  bed  one  night 
in  sore  perplexity  and  fear  of  the  evil  spirit  who  seemed  so 
busy  in  his  sheepfold,  beheld  a  vision  of  an  angel,  who  bade 
build  the  bridge  where  he  himself  had  so  kindly  transported 
the  materials;  for  there  alone  was  sure  foundation  amid  the 
broad  sheet  of  shifting  sand.  All  do  not  know  how  Bishop 
Grandison  of  Exeter  proclaimed  throughout  his  diocese  indul- 
gences, benedictions,  and  "  participation  in  all  spiritual  bless- 
ings for  ever,"  to  all  who  would  promote  the  bridging  of  that 
dangerous  ford ;  and  so,  consulting  alike  the  interests  of  their 
souls  and  of  their  bodies,  "make  the  best  of  both  worlds." 

1  The  Raleigh,  the  largest  ship  of  the  squadron,  was  of  only  200  tons 
burden ;  The  Golden  Hind,  Hayes'  ship,  which  returned  safe,  of  40  ;  and 
The  Squirrel  (whereof  more  hereafter),  of  10  tons  !  In  such  cockboats 
did  these  old  heroes  brave  the  unknown  seas. 


234  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  xil. 

All  do  not  know,  nor  do  I,  that  "  though  the  foundation  of 
the  bridge  is  laid  upon  wool,  yet  it  shakes  at  the  slightest  step 
of  a  horse ;"  or  that,  "  though  it  has  twenty-three  arches,  yet 
one  Wm.  Alford  (another  Milo)  carried  on  his  back  for  a  wager 
four  bushels  salt-water  measure,  all  the  length  thereof;"  or 
that  the  bridge  is  a  veritable  esquire,  bearing  arms  of  its  own 
(a  ship  and  bridge  proper  on  a  plain  field),  and  owning  lands 
and  tenements  in  many  parishes,  with  which  the  said  miracu- 
lous bridge  has,  from  time  to  time,  founded  charities,  built 
schools,  waged  suits  at  law,  and  finally  (for  this  concerns  us 
most)  given  yearly  dinners,  and  kept  for  that  purpose  (luxurious 
and  liquorish  bridge  that  it  was)  the  best  stocked  cellar  of 
wines  in  all  Devon. 

To  one  of  these  dinners,  as  it  happened,  were  invited  in 
the  year  1583  all  the  notabilities  of  Bideford,  and  beside  them 
Mr.  St.  Leger  of  Annery  close  by,  brother  of  the  Marshal  of 
Munster,  and  of  Lady  Grenvile ;  a  most  worthy  and  hospitable 
gentleman,  who,  finding  riches  a  snare,  parted  with  them  so 
freely  to  all  his  neighbours  as  long  as  he  lived,  that  he  effec- 
tually prevented  his  children  after  him  from  falling  into  the 
temptations  thereunto  incident. 

Between  him  and  one  of  the  bridge  trustees  arose  an  argu- 
ment, whether  a  salmon  caught  below  the  bridge  was  better  or 
worse  than  one  caught  above ;  and  as  that  weighty  question 
could  only  be  decided  by  practical  experiment,  Mr.  St.  Leger 
vowed  that  as  the  bridge  had  given  him  a  good  dinner,  he 
would  give  the  bridge  one ;  offered  a  bet  of  five  pounds  that 
he  would  find  them,  out  of  the  pool  below  Annery,  as  firm  and 
flaky  a  salmon  as  the  Appledore  one  which  they  had  just  eaten; 
and  then,  in  the  fulness  of  his  heart,  invited  the  whole  com- 
pany present  to  dine  with  him  at  Annery  three  days  after,  and 
bring  with  them  each  a  wife  or  daughter ;  and  Don  Guzman 
being  at  table,  he  was  invited  too. 

So  there  was  a  mighty  feast  in  the  great  hall  at  Annery, 
such  as  had  seldom  been  since  Judge  Hankford  feasted  Edward 
the  Fourth  there ;  and  while  every  one  was  eating  their  best 
and  drinking  their  worst,  Rose  Salterne  and  Don  Guzman  were 
pretending  not  to  see  each  other,  and  watching  each  other  all 
the  more.  But  Rose,  at  least,  had  to  be  very  careful  of  her 
glances;  for  not  only  was  her  father  at  the  table,  but  just 
opposite  her  sat  none  other  than  Messrs.  William  Gary  and 
Arthur  St.  Leger,  lieutenants  in  her  Majesty's  Irish  army,  who 
had  returned  on  furlough  a  few  days  before. 


CHA1-.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  235 

Rose  Salterne  and  the  Spaniard  had  not  exchanged  a  word 
in  the  last  six  months,  though  they  had  met  many  times.  The 
Spaniard  by  no  means  avoided  her  company,  except  in  her 
father's  house;  he  only  took  care  to  obey  her  carefully,  by 
seeming  always  unconscious  of  her  presence,  beyond  the  state- 
liest of  salutes  at  entering  and  departing.  But  he  took  care, 
at  the  same  time,  to  lay  himself  out  to  the  very  best  advantage 
whenever  he  was  in  her  presence ;  to  be  more  witty,  more 
eloquent,  more  romantic,  more  full  of  wonderful  tales  than  he 
ever  yet  had  been.  The  cunning  Don  had  found  himself 
foiled  in  his  first  tactic ;  and  he  was  now  trying  another,  and 
a  far  more  formidable  one.  In  the  first  place,  Rose  deserved  a 
very  severe  punishment,  for  having  dared  to  refuse  the  love  of 
a  Spanish  nobleman ;  and  what  greater  punishment  could  he 
inflict  than  withdrawing  the  honour  of  his  attentions,  and  the 
sunshine  of  his  smiles'!  There  was  conceit  enough  in  that 
notion,  but  there  was  cunning  too ;  for  none  knew  better  than 
the  Spaniard,  that  women,  like  the  world,  are  pretty  sure  to 
value  a  man  (especially  if  there  be  any  real  worth  in  him)  at 
his  own  price  ;  and  that  the  more  he  demands  for  himself,  the 
more  they  will  give  for  him. 

And  now  he  would  put  a  high  price  on  himself,  and  pique 
her  pride,  as  she  was  too  much  accustomed  to  worship,  to  be 
won  by  flattering  it.  He  might  have  done  that  by  paying 
attention  to  some  one  else :  but  he  was  too  wise  to  employ  so 
coarse  a  method,  which  might  raise  indignation,  or  disgust,  or 
despair  in  Rose's  heart,  but  would  have  never  brought  her  to 
his  feet — as  it  will  never  bring  any  woman  worth  bringing. 
So  he  quietly  and  unobtrusively  showed  her  that  he  could  do 
without  her ;  and  she,  poor  fool,  as  she  was  meant  to  do, 
began  forthwith  to  ask  herself — why  1  What  was  the  hidden 
treasure,  what  was  the  reserve  force,  which  made  him  independ- 
ent of  her,  while  she  could  not  say  that  she  was  independent  of 
him  1  Had  he  a  secret  ?  how  pleasant  to  know  it !  Some 
huge  ambition  1  how  pleasant  to  share  in  it !  Some  mysteri- 
ous knowledge  1  how  pleasant  to  learn  it !  Some  capacity  of 
love  beyond  the  common  ?  how  delicious  to  have  it  all  for  her 
own  !  He  must  be  greater,  wiser,  richer-hearted  than  she  was, 
as  well  as  better-born.  Ah,  if  his  wealth  would  but  supply  her 
poverty !  And  so,  step  by  step,  she  was  being  led  to  sue  in 
formft  pauperis  to  the  very  man  whom  she  had  spurned  when 
he  sued  in  like  form  to  her.  That  temptation  of  having  some 
mysterious  private  treasure,  of  being  the  priestess  of  some 


236  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  Xn. 

hidden  sanctuary,  and  being  able  to  thank  Heaven  that  she  was 
not  as  other  women  are,  was  becoming  fast  too  much  for  Rose, 
as  it  is  too  much  for  most.  For  none  knew  better  than  the 
Spaniard  how  much  more  fond  women  are,  by  the  very  law  of 
their  sex,  of  worshipping  than  of  being  worshipped,  and  of 
obeying  than  of  being  obeyed ;  how  their  coyness,  often  their 
scorn,  is  but  a  mask  to  hide  their  consciousness  of  weakness ; 
and  a  mask,  too,  of  which  they  themselves  will  often  be  the 
first  to  tire. 

And  Rose  was  utterly  tired  of  that  same  mask  as  she  sat  at 
table  at  Annery  that  day ;  and  Don  Guzman  saw  it  in  her  un- 
easy and  downcast  looks,  and  thinking  (conceited  coxcomb)  that 
she  must  be  by  now  sufficiently  punished,  stole  a  glance  at  her 
now  and  then,  and  was  not  abashed  when  he  saw  that  she 
dropped  her  eyes  when  they  met  his,  because  he  saw  her  silence 
and  abstraction  increase,  and  something  like  a  blush  steal  into 
her  cheeks.  So  he  pretended  to  be  as  much  downcast  and 
abstracted  as  she  was,  and  went  on  with  his  glances,  till  he  once 
found  her,  poor  thing,  looking  at  him  to  see  if  he  was  looking 
at  her ;  and  then  he  knew  his  prey  was  safe,  and  asked  her, 
with  his  eyes,  "  Do  you  forgive  me  ?"  and  saw  her  stop  dead  in 
her  talk  to  her  next  neighbour,  and  falter,  and  drop  her  eyes, 
and  raise  them  again  after  a  minute  in  search  of  his,  that  he 
might  repeat  the  pleasant  question.  And  then  what  could  she 
do  but  answer  with  all  her  face  and  every  bend  of  her  pretty 
neck,  "  And  do  you  forgive  me  in  turn '?" 

Whereon  Don  Guzman  broke  out  jubilant,  like  nightingale 
on  bough,  with  story,  and  jest,  and  repartee  ;  and  became  forth- 
with the  soul  of  the  whole  company,  and  the  most  charming  of 
all  cavaliers.  And  poor  Rose  knew  that  she  was  the  cause  of 
his  sudden  change  of  mood,  and  blamed  herself  for  what  she 
had  done,  and  shuddered  and  blushed  at  her  own  delight,  and 
longed  that  the  feast  was  over,  that  she  might  hurry  home  and 
hide  herself  alone  with  sweet  fancies  about  a  love  the  reality  of 
which  she  felt  she  dared  not  face. 

It  was  a  beautiful  sight,  the  great  terrace  at  Annery  that 
afternoon ;  with  the  smart  dames  in  their  gaudy  dresses  parad- 
ing up  and  down  in  twos  and  threes  before  the  stately  house ; 
or  looking  down  upon  the  park,  with  the  old  oaks,  and  the  deer, 
and  the  broad  land-locked  river  spread  out  like  a  lake  beneath, 
all  bright  in  the  glare  of  the  midsummer  sun ;  or  listening 
obsequiously  to  the  two  great  ladies  who  did  the  honours,  Mrs. 
St.  Leger  the  hostess,  and  her  sister-in-law,  fair  Lady  Grenvile. 


CHAP.  XI I.I  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  237 

All  chatted,  and  laughed,  and  eyed  each  other's  dresses,  and 
gossiped  about  each  other's  husbands  and  servants  :  only  Rose 
Salterne  kept  apart,  and  longed  to  get  into  a  corner  and  laugh 
or  cry,  she  knew  not  which. 

"  Our  pretty  Rose  seems  sad,"  said  Lady  Grenvile,  coming 
up  to  her.  "  Cheer  up,  child  !  we  want  you  to  come  and  sing 
to  us." 

Rose  answered  she  knew  not  what,  and  obeyed  mechanically. 

She  took  the  lute,  and  sat  down  on  a  bench  beneath  the 
house,  while  the  rest  grouped  themselves  round  her. 

"What  shall  I  sing?" 

"  Let  us  have  your  old  song,  '  Earl  Haldan's  Daughter.'  " 

Rose  shrank  from  it.  It  was  a  loud  and  dashing  ballad, 
which  chimed  in  but  little  with  her  thoughts ;  and  Frank  had 
praised  it  too,  in  happier  days  long  since  gone  by.  She  thought 
of  him,  and  of  others,  and  of  her  pride  and  carelessness  ;  and 
the  song  seemed  ominous  to  her  :  and  yet  for  that  very  reason 
she  dared  not  refuse  to  sing  it,  for  fear  of  suspicion  where  no 
one  suspected ;  and  so  she  began  per  force — 

1. 

"  It  was  Earl  Haldan's  daughter, 

She  look'd  across  the  sea ; 

She  look'd  across  the  water, 

And  long  and  loud  laugh'd  she ; 
'  The  locks  of  six  princesses 

Must  be  my  marriage-fee, 
So  hey  bonny  boat,  and  ho  bonny  boat  \ 

Who  comes  a  wooing  me?' 

2. 

"  It  was  Earl  Haldan's  daughter, 

She  walk'd  along  the  sand  ; 

When  she  was  aware  of  a  knight  so  fair, 

Come  sailing  to  the  land. 

His  sails  were  all  of  velvet, 

His  mast  of  beaten  gold, 
And  '  hey  bonny  boat,  and  ho  bonny  boat, 

Who  saileth  here  so  bold  ?' 

3. 

' '  '  The  locks  of  five  princesses 
I  won  beyond  the  sea  ; 
I  shore  their  golden  tresses, 
To  fringe  a  cloak  for  thee. 
One  handful  yet  is  wanting, 
But  one  of  all  the  tale  ; 
So  hey  bonny  boat,  and  ho  bonny  boat ! 
Furl  up  thy  velvet  sail ! ' 


238  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

4. 

"  He  leapt  into  the  water, 

That  rover  young  and  bold ; 

He  gript  Earl  Haldan's  daughter, 

He  shore  her  locks  of  gold  ; 
'  Go  weep,  go  weep,  proud  maiden, 

The  tale  is  full  to-day. 
Now  hey  bonny  boat,  and  ho  bonny  boat ! 

Sail  Westward-ho,  and  away  ! '  " 

As  she  ceased,  a  measured  voice,  with  a  foreign  accent, 
thrilled  through  her. 

"In  the  East,  they  say  the  nightingale  sings  to  the  rose; 
Devon,  more  happy,  has  nightingale  and  rose  in  one." 

"  We  have  no  nightingales  in  Devon,  Don  Guzman,"  said 
Lady  Grenvile;  "but  our  little  forest  thrushes  sing,  as  you 
hear,  sweetly  enough  to  content  any  ear.  But  what  brings  you 
away  from  the  gentlemen  so  early?" 

"  These  letters,"  said  he,  "  which  have  just  been  put  into  my 
hand ;  and  as  they  call  me  home  to  Spain,  I  was  loth  to  lose 
a  moment  of  that  delightful  company  from  which  I  must  part 
so  soon."  • 

"To  Spain?"  asked  half-a-dozen  voices  :  for  the  Don  was  a 
general  favourite. 

"  Yes,  and  thence  to  the  Indies.  My  ransom  has  arrived, 
and  with  it  the  promise  of  an  office.  I  am  to  be  Governor  of 
La  Guayra  in  Caraccas.  Congratulate  me  on  my  promotion." 

A  mist  was  over  Rose's  eyes.  The  Spaniard's  voice  was 
hard  and  flippant.  Did  he  care  for  her  after  all  1  And  if  he 
did,  was  it  nevertheless  hopeless  ?  How  her  cheeks  glowed ! 
Everybody  must  see  it !  Anything  to  turn  away  their  attention 
from  her,  and  in  that  nervous  haste  which  makes  people  speak, 
and  speak  foolishly  too,  just  because  they  ought  to  be  silent, 
she  asked — 

"And  where  is  La  Guayra?" 

"  Half  round  the  world,  on  the  coast  of  the  Spanish  Main. 
The  loveliest  place  on  earth,  and  the  loveliest  governor's  house, 
in  a  forest  of  palms  at  the  foot  of  a  mountain  eight  thousand 
feet  high  :  I  shall  only  want  a  wife  there  to  be  in  paradise." 

"  I  don't  doubt  that  you  may  persuade  some  fair  lady  of 
Seville  to  accompany  you  thither,"  said  Lady  Grenvile. 

"  Thanks,  gracious  Madam :  but  the  truth  is,  that  since  I 
have  had  the  bliss  of  knowing  English  ladies,  I  have  begun  to 
think  that  they  are  the  only  ones  on  earth  worth  wooing." 

"  A  thousand  thanks  for  the  compliment ;  but  I  fear  none 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  239 

of  our  free  English  maidens  would  like  to  submit  to  the  guardian- 
ship of  a  duenna.  Eh,  Rose  ?  how  should  you  like  to  be  kept 
under  lock  and  key  all  day  by  an  ugly  old  woman  with  a  horn 
on  her  forehead  ?" 

Poor  Rose  turned  so  scarlet  that  Lady  Grenvile  knew  her 
secret  on  the  spot,  and  would  have  tried  to  turn  the  conversa- 
tion :  but  before  she  could  speak,  some  burgher's  wife  blundered 
out  a  commonplace  about  the  jealousy  of  Spanish  husbands ; 
and  another,  to  make  matters  better,  giggled  out  something 
more  true  than  delicate  about  West  Indian  masters  and  fair 


"  Ladies,"  said  Don  Guzman,  reddening,  "  believe  me  that 
these  are  but  the  calumnies  of  ignorance.  If  we  be  more  jealous 
than  other  nations,  it  is  because  we  love  more  passionately. 
If  some  of  us  abroad  are  profligate,  it  is  because  they,  poor 
men,  have  no  helpmate,  which,  like  the  amethyst,  keeps  its 
wearer  pure.  I  could  tell  you  stories,  ladies,  of  the  constancy 
and  devotion  of  Spanish  husbands,  even  in  the  Indies,  as 
strange  as  ever  romancer  invented." 

"  Can  you  ?    Then  we  challenge  you  to  give  us  one  at  least." 

"  I  fear  it  would  be  too  long,  Madam." 

"  The  longer  the  more  pleasant,  Senor.  How  can  we  spend 
an  hour  better  this  afternoon,  while  the  gentlemen  within  are 
finishing  their  wine  ?" 

Story-telling,  in  those  old  times,  when  books  (and  authors 
also,  lucky  for  the  public)  were  rarer  than  now,  was  a  common 
amusement ;  and  as  the  Spaniard's  accomplishments  in  that 
line  were  well  known,  all  the  ladies  crowded  round  him ;  the 
servants  brought  chairs  and  benches  ;  and  Don  Guzman,  taking 
his  seat  in  the  midst,  with  a  proud  humility,  at  Lady  Grenvile's 
feet,  began — 

"  Your  perfections,  fair  and  illustrious  ladies,  must  doubt- 
less have  heard,  ere  now,  how  Sebastian  Cabota,  some  forty-five 
years  ago,  sailed  forth  with  a  commission  from  my  late  master, 
the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  to  discover  the  golden  lands  of 
Tarshish,  Ophir,  and  Cipango  ;  but  being  in  want  of  provisions, 
stopped  short  at  the  mouth  of  that  mighty  South  American 
river  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Rio  de  la  Plata,  and  sailing 
up  it,  discovered  the  fair  land  of  Paraguay.  But  you  may  not 
have  heard  how,  on  the  bank  of  that  river,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Terceiro,  he  built  a  fort  which  men  still  call  Cabot's  Tower ; 
nor  have  you,  perhaps,  heard  of  the  strange  tale  which  will  ever 
make  the  tower  a  sacred  spot  to  all  true  lovers. 


240  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

"  For  when  he  returned  to  Spain  the  year  after,  he  left  in 
his  tower  a  garrison  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  under  the 
command  of  Nuno  de  Lara,  Ruiz  Moschera,  and  Sebastian  da 
Hurtado,  old  friends  and  fellow-soldiers  of  my  invincible  grand- 
father Don  Ferdinando  da  Soto ;  and  with  them  a  jewel,  than 
which  Spain  never  possessed  one  more  precious,  Lucia  Miranda, 
the  wife  of  Hurtado,  who,  famed  in  the  Court  of  the  Emperor 
no  less  for  her  wisdom  and  modesty  than  for  her  unrivalled 
beauty,  had  thrown  up  all  the  pomp  and  ambition  of  a  palace, 
to  marry  a  poor  adventurer,  and  to  encounter  with  him  the  hard- 
ships of  a  voyage  round  the  world.  Mangora,  the  Cacique  of 
the  neighbouring  Timbuez  Indians  (with  whom  Lara  had  con- 
trived to  establish  a  friendship),  cast  his  eyes  on  this  fair  crea- 
ture, and  no  sooner  saw  than  he  coveted ;  no  sooner  coveted 
than  he  plotted,  with  the  devilish  subtilty  of  a  savage,  to  seize 
by  force  what  he  knew  he  could  never  gain  by  right.  She  soon 
found  out  his  passion  (she  was  wise  enough — what  every  woman 
is  not — to  know  when  she  is  loved),  and  telling  her  husband, 
kept  as  much  as  she  could  out  of  her  new  lover's  sight ;  while 
the  savage  pressed  Hurtado  to  come  and  visit  him,  and  to  bring 
his  lady  with  him.  Hurtado,  suspecting  the  snare,  and  yet 
fearing  to  offend  the  Cacique,  excused  himself  courteously  on 
the  score  of  his  soldier's  duty ;  and  the  savage,  mad  with  desire 
and  disappointment,  began  plotting  against  Hurtado's  life. 

"  So  went  on  several  weeks,  till  food  grew  scarce,  and  Don 
Hurtado  and  Don  Ruiz  Moschera,  with  fifty  soldiers,  were  sent 
up  the  river  on  a  foraging  party.  Mangora  saw  his  opportunity, 
and  leapt  at  it  forthwith. 

"  The  tower,  ladies,  as  I  have  heard  from  those  who  have 
seen  it,  stands  on  a  knoll  at  the  meeting  of  the  two  rivers, 
while  on  the  land  side  stretches  a  dreary  marsh,  covered  with 
tall  grass  and  bushes ;  a  fit  place  for  the  ambuscade  of  four 
thousand  Indians,  which  Mangora,  with  devilish  cunning, 
placed  around  the  tower,  while  he  .himself  went  boldly  up  to 
it,  followed  by  thirty  men,  laden  with  grain,  fruit,  game,  and 
all  the  delicacies  which  his  forests  could  afford. 

"  There,  with  a  smiling  face,  he  told  the  unsuspecting  Lara 
his  sorrow  for  the  Spaniard's  want  of  food ;  besought  him  to 
accept  the  provision  he  had  brought,  and  was,  as  he  had  ex- 
pected, invited  by  Lara  to  come  in  and  taste  the  wines  of  Spain. 

"  In  went  he  and  his  thirty  fellow-bandits,  and  the  feast 
continued,  with  songs  and  libations,  far  into  the  night,  while 
Mangora  often  looked  round,  and  at  last  boldly  asked  for  the 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  241 

fair  Miranda  :  but  she  had  shut  herself  into  her  lodging,  plead- 
ing illness. 

"A  plea,  fair  ladies,  which  little  availed  that  hapless  dame: 
for  no  sooner  had  the  Spaniards  retired  to  rest,  leaving  (by  I 
know  not  what  madness)  Mangora  and  his  Indians  within,  than 
they  were  awakened  by  the  cry  of  fire,  the  explosion  of  their 
magazine,  and  the  inward  rush  of  the  four  thousand  from  the 
marsh  outside. 

"  Why  pain  your  gentle  ears  with  details  of  slaughter  ?  A 
few  fearful  minutes  sufficed  to  exterminate  my  bewildered  and 
unarmed  countrymen,  to  bind  the  only  survivors,  Miranda 
(innocent  cause  of  the  whole  tragedy)  and  four  other  women 
with  their  infants,  and  to  lead  them  away  in  triumph  across 
the  forest  towards  the  Indian  town. 

"  Stunned  by  the  suddenness  of  the  evils  which  had  passed, 
and  still  more  by  the  thought  of  those  worse  which  were  to 
come  (as  she  too  well  foresaw),  Miranda  travelled  all  night 
through  the  forest,  and  was  brought  in  triumph  at  day-dawn 
before  the  Indian  king  to  receive  her  doom.  Judge  of  her 
astonishment,  when,  on  looking  up,  she  saw  that  he  was  not 
Mangora. 

"  A  ray  of  hope  flashed  across  her,  and  she  asked  where  he 
was. 

" '  He  was  slain  last  night,'  said  the  king ;  '  and  I  his 
brother  Siripa,  am  now  Cacique  of  the  Timbuez.' 

"  It  was  true ;  Lara,  maddened  with  drink,  rage,  and 
wounds,  had  caught  up  his  sword,  rushed  into  the  thick  of  the 
fight,  singled  out  the  traitor,  and  slain  him  on  the  spot ;  and 
then,  forgetting  safety  in  revenge,  had  continued  to  plunge  his 
Bword  into  the  corpse,  heedless  of  the  blows  of  the  savages,  till 
he  fell  pierced  with  a  hundred  wounds. 

"A  ray  of  hope,  as  I  said,  flashed  across  the  wretched 
Miranda  for  a  moment ;  but  the  next  she  found  that  she  had 
been  freed  from  one  bandit  only  to  be  delivered  to  another. 

"  '  Yes,'  said  the  new  king  in  broken  Spanish  ;  '  my  brother 
played  a  bold  stake,  and  lost  it ;  but  it  was  well  worth  the 
risk,  and  he  showed  his  wisdom  thereby.  You  cannot  be  his 
queen  now  :  you  must  content  yourself  with  being  mine.' 

"  Miranda,  desperate,  answered  him  with  every  fierce  taunt 
which  she  could  invent  against  his  treachery  and  his  crime ;  and 
asked  him,  how  he  came  to  dream  that  the  wife  of  a  Christian 
Spaniard  would  condescend  to  become  the  mistress  of  a  heathen 
savage;  hoping,  unhappy  lady,  to  exasperate  him  into  killing 

R 


242  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

her  on  the  spot.  But  in  vain ;  she  only  prolonged  thereby  her 
own  misery.  For,  whether  it  was,  ladies,  that  the  novel  sight 
of  divine  virtue  and  beauty  awed  (as  it  may  have  awed  me  ere 
now),  where  it  had  just  before  maddened;  or  whether  some 
dream  crossed  the  savage  (as  it  may  have  crossed  me  ere  now), 
that  he  could  make  the  wisdom  of  a  mortal  angel  help  his 
ambition,  as  well  as  her  beauty  his  happiness ;  or  whether 
(which  I  will  never  believe  of  one  of  those  dark  children  of  the 
devil,  though  I  can  boldly  assert  it  of  myself)  some  spark  of 
boldness  within  him  made  him  too  proud  to  take  by  force  what 
he  could  not  win  by  persuasion,  certain  it  is,  as  the  Indians 
themselves  confessed  afterwards,  that  the  savage  only  answered 
her  by  smiles ;  and  bidding  his  men  unbind  her,  told  her  that 
she  was  no  slave  of  his,  and  that  it  only  lay  with  her  to  become 
the  sovereign  of  him  and  all  his  vassals ;  assigned  her  a  hut  to 
herself,  loaded  her  with  savage  ornaments,  and  for  several  weeks 
treated  her  with  no  less  courtesy  (so  miraculous  is  the  power  of 
love)  than  if  he  had  been  a  cavalier  of  Castile. 

"  Three  months  and  more,  ladies,  as  I  have  heard,  passed 
in  this  misery,  and  every  day  Miranda  grew  more  desperate  of 
all  deliverance,  and  saw  staring  her  in  the  face,  nearer  and 
nearer,  some  hideous  and  shameful  end ;  when  one  day  going 
down  with  the  wives  of  the  Cacique  to  draw  water  in  the  river, 
she  saw  on  the  opposite  bank  a  white  man  in  a  tattered  Spanish 
dress,  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his  hand ;  who  had  no  sooner 
espied  her,  than  shrieking  her  name,  he  plunged  into  the  stream, 
swam  across,  landed  at  her  feet,  and  clasped  her  in  his  arms. 
It  was  no  other,  ladies,  incredible  as  it  may  seem,  than  Don 
Sebastian  himself,  who  had  returned  with  Ruiz  Moschera  to  the 
tower,  and  found  it  only  a  charred  and  bloodstained  heap  of 
ruins. 

"  He  guessed,  as  by  inspiration,  what  had  passed,  and 
whither  his  lady  was  gone ;  and  without  a  thought  of  danger, 
like  a  true  Spanish  gentleman,  and  a  true  Spanish  lover,  darted 
off  alone  into  the  forest,  and  guided  only  by  the  inspiration  of 
his  own  loyal  heart,  found  again  his  treasure,  and  found  it  still 
unstained  and  his  own. 

"  AVho  can  describe  the  joy,  and  who  again  the  terror,  of 
their  meeting  ?  The  Indian  women  had  fled  in  fear,  and  for 
the  short  ten  minutes  that  the  lovers  were  left  together,  life,  to 
be  sure,  was  one  long  kiss.  But  what  to  do  they  knew  not. 
To  go  inland  was  to  rush  into  the  enemy's  arms.  He  would 
have  swum  with  her  across  the  river,  and  attempted  it ;  but 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  243 

his  strength,  worn  out  with  hunger  and  travel,  failed  him ;  he 
drew  her  with  difficulty  on  shore  again,  and  sat  down  by  her  to 
await  their  doom  with  prayer,  the  first  and  last  resource  of 
virtuous  ladies,  as  weapons  are  of  cavaliers. 

"  Alas  for  them  !  May  no  true  lovers  ever  have  to  weep 
over  joys  so  soon  lost,  after  having  been  so  hardly  found  !  For, 
ere  a  quarter  of  an  hour  was  passed,  the  Indian  women,  who 
had  fled  at  his  approach,  returned  with  all  the  warriors  of  the 
tribe.  Don  Sebastian,  desperate,  would  fain  have  slain  his  wife 
and  himself  on  the  spot ;  but  his  hand  sank  again — and  whose 
would  not  but  an  Indian's? — as  he  raised  it  against  that  fair 
and  faithful  breast ;  in  a  few  minutes  he  was  surrounded,  seized 
from  behind,  disarmed,  and  carried  in  triumph  into  the  village. 
And  if  you  cannot  feel  for  him  in  that  misery,  fair  ladies,  who 
have  known  no  sorrow,  yet  I,  a  prisoner,  can." 

Don  Guzman  paused  a  moment,  as  if  overcome  by  emotion  ; 
and  I  will  not  say  that,  as  he  paused,  he  did  not  look  to  see  if 
Rose  Salterne's  eyes  were  on  him,  as  indeed  they  were. 

"  Yes,  I  can  feel  with  him ;  I  can  estimate,  better  than  you, 
ladies,  the  greatness  of  that  love  which  could  submit  to  captiv- 
ity ;  to  the  loss  of  his  sword ;  to  the  loss  of  that  honour,  which, 
next  to  God  and  his  mother,  is  the  true  Spaniard's  deity.  There 
are  those  who  have  suffered  that  shame  at  the  hands  of  valiant 
gentlemen  "  (and  again  Don  Guzman  looked  up  at  Rose),  "  and 
yet  woiild  have  sooner  died  a  thousand  deaths ;  but  he  dared 
to  endure  it  from  the  hands  of  villains,  savages,  heathens ;  for 
he  was  a  true  Spaniard,  and  therefore  a  true  lover :  but  I  will 
go  on  with  my  tale. 

"  This  wretched  pair,  then,  as  I  have  been  told  by  Ruiz 
Moschera  himself,  stood  together  before  the  Cacique.  He,  like 
a  true  child  of  the  devil,  comprehending  in  a  moment  who  Don 
Sebastian  was,  laughed  with  delight  at  seeing  his  rival  in  his 
power,  and  bade  bind  him  at  once  to  a  tree,  and  shoot  him  to 
death  with  arrows. 

"  But  the  poor  Miranda  sprang  forward,  and  threw  herself 
at  his  feet,  and  with  piteous  entreaties  besought  for  mercy  from 
him  who  knew  no  mercy. 

"  And  yet  love  and  the  sight  of  her  beauty,  and  the  terrible 
eloquence  of  her  words,  while  she  invoked  on  his  head  the  just 
vengeance  of  Heaven,  wrought  even  on  his  heart :  nevertheless 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  her,  who  had  so  long  scorned  him,  a  sup- 
pliant at  his  feet,  was  too  delicate  to  be  speedily  foregone ;  and 
not  till  she  was  all  but  blind  with  tears,  and  dumb  with  agony 


244  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  xn. 

of  pleading,  did  he  make  answer,  that  if  she  would  consent  to 
become  his  wife,  her  husband's  life  should  be  spared.  She,  in 
her  haste  and  madness,  sobbed  out  desperately  I  know  not  what 
consent.  Don  Sebastian,  who  understood,  if  not  the  language, 
still  the  meaning  (so  had  love  quickened  his  understanding), 
shrieked  to  her  not  to  lose  her  precious  soul  for  the  sake  of  his 
worthless  body ;  that  death  was  nothing  compared  to  the  horror 
of  that  shame ;  and  such  other  words  as  became  a  noble  and 
valiant  gentleman.  She,  shuddering  now  at  her  own  frailty, 
would  have  recalled  her  promise  ;  but  Siripa  kept  her  to  it, 
vowing,  if  she  disappointed  him  again,  such  a  death  to  her  hus- 
band as  made  her  blood  run  cold  to  hear  of;  and  the  wretched 
woman  could  only  escape  for  the  present  by  some  story,  that  it 
was  not  the  custom  of  her  race  to  celebrate  nuptials  till  a  month 
after  the  betrothment ;  that  the  anger  of  Heaven  would  be  on 
her,  unless  she  first  performed  in  solitude  certain  religious  rites ; 
and  lastly,  that  if  he  dared  to  lay  hands  on  her  husband,  she 
would  die  so  resolutely,  that  every  drop  of  water  should  be  deep 
enough  to  drown  her,  every  thorn  sharp  enough  to  stab  her  to 
the  heart :  till  fearing  lest  by  demanding  too  much  he  should 
lose  all,  and  awed  too,  as  he  had  been  at  first  by  a  voice  and 
looks  which  seemed  to  be,  in  comparison  with  his  own,  divine, 
Siripa  bade  her  go  back  to  her  hut,  promising  her  husband  life ; 
but  promising  too,  that  if  he  ever  found  the  two  speaking  to- 
gether, even  for  a  moment,  he  would  pour  out  on  them  both  all 
the  cruelty  of  those  tortures  in  which  the  devil,  their  father, 
has  so  perfectly  instructed  the  Indians. 

"  So  Don  Sebastian,  being  stripped  of  his  garments,  and 
painted  after  the  Indian  fashion,  was  set  to  all  mean  and  toil- 
some work,  amid  the  buffetiugs  and  insults  of  the  whole  village. 
And  this,  ladies,  he  endured  without  a  murmur,  ay,  took  delight 
in  enduring  it,  as  he  would  have  endured  things  worse  a  thou- 
sand times,  only  for  the  sake,  like  a  true  lover  as  he  was,  of 
being  near  the  goddess  whom  he  worshipped,  and  of  seeing  her 
now  and  then  afar  off,  happy  enough  to  be  repaid  even  by  that 
for  all  indignities. 

"  And  yet,  you  who  have  loved  may  well  guess,  as  I  can,  that 
ere  a  week  had  passed,  Don  Sebastian  and  the  Lady  Miranda 
had  found  means,  in  spite  of  all  spiteful  eyes,  to  speak  to  each 
other  once  and  again ;  and  to  assure  each  other  of  their  love ; 
even  to  talk  of  escape,  before  the  month's  grace  should  be  ex- 
pired. And  Miranda,  whose  heart  was  full  of  courage  as  long 
as  she  felt  her  husband  near  her,  went  so  far  as  to  plan  a  means 
of  escape  which  seemed  possible  and  hopeful. 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  245 

"  For  the  youngest  wife  of  the  Cacique,  who,  till  Miranda's 
coming,  had  been  his  favourite,  often  talked  with  the  captive, 
insulting  and  tormenting  her  in  her  spite  and  jealousy,  and 
receiving  in  return  only  gentle  and  conciliatory  words.  And  one 
day  when  the  woman  had  been  threatening  to  kill  her,  Miranda 
took  courage  to  say,  '  Do  you  fancy  that  I  shall  not  be  as  glad 
to  be  rid  of  your  husband,  as  you  to  be  rid  of  me  1  Why  kill 
me  needlessly,  when  all  that  you  require  is  to  get  me  forth  of 
the  place  1  Out  of  sight,  out  of  mind.  When  I  am  gone,  your 
husband  will  soon  forget  me,  and  you  will  be  his  favourite  as 
before.'  Soon,  seeing  that  the  girl  was  inclined  to  listen,  she 
went  on  to  tell  her  of  her  love  to  Don  Sebastian,  entreating  and 
adjuring  her,  by  the  love  which  she  bore  the  Cacique,  to  pity 
and  help  her ;  and  so  won  upon  the  girl,  that  she  consented  to 
be  privy  to  Miranda's  escape,  and  even  offered  to  give  her  an 
opportunity  of  speaking  to  her  husband  about  it ;  and  at  last 
was  so  won  over  by  Miranda,  that  she  consented  to  keep  all 
intruders  out  of  the  way,  while  Don  Sebastian  that  very  night 
visited  Miranda  in  her  hut. 

"  The  hapless  husband,  thirsting  for  his  love,  was  in  that 
hut,  be  sure,  the  moment  that  kind  darkness  covered  his  steps  : 
— and  what  cheer  these  two  made  of  each  other,  when  they 
once  found  themselves  together,  lovers  must  fancy  for  them- 
selves :  but  so  it  was,  that  after  many  a  leave-taking,  there  was 
no  departure ;  and  when  the  night  was  well-nigh  past,  Sebastian 
and  Miranda  were  still  talking  together,  as  if  they  had  never 
met  before,  and  would  never  meet  again. 

"  But  it  befell,  ladies  (would  that  I  was  not  speaking  truth, 
but  inventing,  that  I  might  have  invented  something  merrier 
for  your  ears),  it  befell  that  very  night,  that  the  young  wife  of 
the  Cacique,  whose  heart  was  lifted  up  with  the  thought  that 
her  rival  was  now  at  last  disposed  of,  tried  all  her  wiles  to  win 
back  her  faithless  husband ;  but  in  vain.  He  only  answered 
her  caresses  by  indifference,  then  by  contempt,  then  insults, 
then  blows  (for  with  the  Indians,  woman  is  always  a  slave,  or 
rather  a  beast  of  burden),  and  went  on  to  draw  such  cruel  com- 
parisons between  her  dark  skin  and  the  glorious  fairness  of  the 
Spanish  lady,  that  the  wretched  girl,  beside  herself  with  rage, 
burst  out  at  last  with  her  own  secret.  '  Fool  that  you  are  to 
madden  yourself  about  a  stranger  who  prizes  one  hair  of  her 
Spanish  husband's  head  more  than  your  whole  body !  Much 
does  your  new  bride  care  for  you  !  She  is  at  this  moment  in 
her  husband's  arms !' 


246  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

"  The  Cacique  screamed  furiously  to  know  what  she  meant; 
and  she,  her  jealousy  and  hate  of  the  guiltless  lady  boiling  over 
once  for  all,  bade  him,  if  he  doubted  her,  go  see  for  himself. 

"  What  use  of  many  words  1  They  were  taken.  Love,  or 
rather  lust,  repelled,  turned  in  a  moment  into  devilish  hate; 
and  the  Cacique,  summoning  his  Indians,  bade  them  bind  the 
wretched  Don  Sebastian  to  a  tree,  and  there  inflicted  on  him 
the  lingering  death  to  which  he  had  at  first  been  doomed.  For 
Miranda  he  had  more  exquisite  cruelty  in  store.  And  shall  I 
tell  it  1  Yes,  ladies,  for  the  honour  of  love  and  of  Spain,  and 
for  a  justification  of  those  cruelties  against  the  Indians  which 
are  so  falsely  imputed  to  our  most  Christian  nation,  it  shall  be 
told  :  he  delivered  the  wretched  lady  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  his  wives ;  and  what  they  were  is  neither  fit  for  me  to  tell, 
nor  you  to  hear. 

"  The  two  wretched  lovers  cast  themselves  upon  each  other's 
neck ;  drank  each  other's  salt  tears  with  the  last  kisses ;  ac- 
cused themselves  as  the  cause  of  each  other's  death ;  and  then, 
rising  above  fear  and  grief,  broke  out  in.to  triumph  at  thus  dying 
for  and  with  each  other ;  and  proclaiming  themselves  the  mar- 
tyrs of  love,  commended  their  souls  to  God,  and  then  stepped 
joyfully  and  proudly  to  their  doom." 

"And  what  was  that?"  asked  half-a-dozen  trembling  voices. 

"  Don  Sebastian,  as  I  have  said,  was  shot  to  death  with 
arrows ;  but  as  for  the  Lady  Miranda,  the  wretches  themselves 
confessed  afterwards,  when  they  received  due  vengeance  for  their 
crimes  (as  they  did  receive  it),  that  after  all  shameful  and  hor- 
rible indignities,  she  was  bound  to  a  tree,  and  there  burned 
slowly  in  her  husband's  sight,  stifling  her  shrieks  lest  they 
should  wring  his  heart  by  one  additional  pang,  and  never  taking 
her  eyes,  to  the  last,  off  that  beloved  face.  And  so  died  (but 
not  unavenged)  Sebastian  de  Hurtado  and  Lucia  Miranda, — a 
Spanish  husband  and  a  Spanish  wife." 

The  Don  paused,  and  the  ladies  were  silent  awhile ;  for,  in- 
deed, there  was  many  a  gentle  tear  to  be  dried ;  but  at  last 
Mrs.  St.  Leger  spoke,  half,  it  seemed,  to  turn  off  the  too  pain- 
ful impression  of  the  over-true  tale,  the  outlines  whereof  may 
be  still  read  in  old  Charlevoix. 

"  You  have  told  a  sad  and  a  noble  tale,  sir,  and  told  it  well ; 
but,  though  your  story  was  to  set  forth  a  perfect  husband,  it 
has  ended  rather  by  setting  forth  a  perfect  wife." 

"  And  if  I  have  forgotten,  Madam,  in  praising  her  to  praise 
him  also,  have  I  not  done  that  which  would  have  best  pleased 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  247 

his  heroical  and  chivalrous  spirit  1  He,  be  sure,  would  have 
forgotten  his  own  virtue  in  the  light  of  hers ;  and  he  would 
have  wished  me,  I  doubt  not,  to  do  the  same  also.  And  beside, 
Madam,  where  ladies  are  the  theme,  who  has  time  or  heart  to 
cast  one  thought  upon  their  slaves?"  And  the  Don  made  one 
of  his  deliberate  and  highly-finished  bows. 

"Don  Guzman  is  courtier  enough,  as  far  as  compliments 
go,"  said  one  of  the  young  ladies ;  "  but  it  was  hardly  courtier- 
like  of  him  to  find  us  so  sad  an  entertainment,  upon  a  merry 
evening." 

"Yes,"  said  another;  "we  must  ask  him  for  no  more  stories." 

"  Or  songs  either,"  said  a  third.  "  I  fear  he  knows  none 
but  about  forsaken  maidens  and  despairing  lovers." 

"  I  know  nothing  at  all  about  forsaken  ladies,  Madam ; 
because  ladies  are  never  forsaken  in  Spain." 

"  Nor  about  lovers  despairing  there,  I  suppose  ?" 

u  That  good  opinion  of  ourselves,  Madam,  with  which  you 
English  are  pleased  to  twit  us  now  and  then,  always  prevents 
so  sad  a  state  of  mind.  For  myself,  I  have  had  little  to  do  with 
love ;  but  I  have  had  still  less  to  do  with  despair,  and  intend, 
by  help  of  Heaven,  to  have  less." 

"You  are  valiant,  sir." 

"  You  would  not  have  me  a  coward,  Madam  ?"  and  so  forth. 

Now  all  this  time  Don  Guzman  had  been  talking  at  Eose 
Salterne,  and  giving  her  the  very  slightest  hint,  every  now  and 
then,  that  he  was  talking  at  her ;  till  the  poor  girl's  face  was 
almost  crimson  with  pleasure,  and  she  gave  herself  up  to  the 
spell.  He  loved  her  still;  perhaps  he  knew  that  she  loved 
him  :  he  must  know  some  day.  She  felt  now  that  there  was 
no  escape ;  she  was  almost  glad  to  think  that  there  was  none. 

The  dark,  handsome,  stately  face;  the  melodious  voice,  with 
its  rich  Spanish  accent ;  the  quiet  grace  of  the  gestures ;  the 
wild  pathos  of  the  story ;  even  the  measured  and  inflated  style, 
as  of  one  speaking  of  another  and  a  loftier  world ;  the  chival- 
rous respect  and  admiration  for  woman,  and  for  faithfulness  to 
woman — what  a  man  he  was  !  If  he  had  been  pleasant  hereto- 
fore, he  was  now  enchanting.  All  the  ladies  round  felt  that, 
she  could  see,  as  much  as  she  herself  did ;  no,  not  quite  as 
much,  she  hoped.  She  surely  understood  him,  and  felt  for  his 
loneliness  more  than  any  of  them.  Had  she  not  been  feeling 
for  it  through  long  and  sad  months  1  But  it  was  she  whom  he 
was  thinking  of,  she  whom  he  was  speaking  to,  all  along.  Oh, 
why  had  the  tale  ended  so  soon  ?  She  would  gladly  have  sat 


248  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

and  wept  her  eyes  out  till  midnight  over  one  melodious  misery 
after  another;  but  she  was  quite  wise  enough  to  keep  her  secret 
to  herself;  and  sat  behind  the  rest,  with  greedy  eyes  and  demure 
lips,  full  of  strange  and  new  happiness — or  misery ;  she  knew 
not  which  to  call  it. 

In  the  meanwhile,  as  it  was  ordained,  Gary  could  see  and 
hear  through  the  window  of  the  hall  a  good  deal  of  what  was 
going  on. 

"  How  that  Spanish  crocodile  ogles  the  Rose  ! "  whispered 
he  to  young  St.  Leger. 

"  What  wonder  1     He  is  not  the  first  by  many  a  one." 

"Ay — but — By  heaven,  she  is  making  side-shots  at  him 
with  those  languishing  eyes  of  hers,  the  little  baggage  !" 

"What  wonder?  He  is  not  the  first,  say  I,  and  won't  be 
the  last.  Pass  the  wine,  man." 

"I  have  had  enough;  between  sack  and  singing,  my  head 
is  as  mazed  as  a  dizzy  sheep.  Let  me  slip  out." 

"  Not  yet,  man ;  remember  you  are  bound  for  one  song 
more." 

So  Gary,  against  his  will,  sat  and  sang  another  song ;  and 
in  the  meanwhile  the  party  had  broken  up,  and  wandered 
away  by  twos  and  threes,  among  trim  gardens  and  pleasaunces, 
and  clipped  yew-walks — 

"  Where  west-winds  with  musky  wing 
About  the  cedarn  alleys  fling 
Nard  and  cassia's  balmy  smells " 

admiring  the  beauty  of  that  stately  place,  long  since  passed 
into  other  hands,  and  fallen  to  decay ;  but  then  (if  old  Prince 
speaks  true)  one  of  the  noblest  mansions  of  the  West. 

At  last  Gary  got  away  and  out ;  sober,  but  just  enough 
flushed  with  wine  to  be  ready  for  any  quarrel ;  and  luckily  for 
him,  had  not  gone  twenty  yards  along  the  great  terrace  before 
he  met  Lady  Grenvile. 

"  Has  your  Ladyship  seen  Don  Guzman  V 
"Yes — why,  where  is  he?     He   was   with  me   not   ten 
minutes  ago.     You  know  he  is  going  back  to  Spain." 
"  Going  !     Has  his  ransom  come  1" 
11  Yes,  and  with  it  a  governorship  in  the  Indies." 
"  Governorship  !     Much  good  may  it  do  the  governed." 
"  Why  not,  then  1     He  is  surely  a  most  gallant  gentleman." 
"  Gallant  enough  — yes,"  said  Gary  carelessly.     "  I  must 
find  him,  and  congratulate  him  on  his  honours." 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  249 

"  I  will  help  you  to  find  him,"  said  Lady  Grenvile,  whose 
woman's  eye  and  ear  had  already  suspected  something. 
"  Escort  me,  sir." 

"  It  is  but  too  great  an  honour  to  squire  the  Queen  of 
Bideford,"  said  Gary,  offering  his  hand. 

"  If  I  am  your  queen,  sir,  I  must  be  obeyed,"  answered  she 
in  a  meaning  tone.  Gary  took  the  hint,  and  went  on  chatter- 
ing cheerfully  enough. 

But  Don  Guzman  was  not  to  be  found  in  garden  or  in 
pleasaunce. 

"  Perhaps,"  at  last  said  a  burgher's  wife,  with  a  toss  of 
her  head,  "  your  Ladyship  may  meet  with  him  at  Hankford's 
oak." 

"  At  Hankford's  oak  !  what  should  take  him  there  ?" 

"Pleasant  company,  I  reckon"  (with  another  toss).  "I 
heard  him  and  Mrs.  Salterne  talking  about  the  oak  just  now." 

Gary  turned  pale  and  drew  in  his  breath. 

"  Very  likely,"  said  Lady  Grenvile  quietly.  "  Will  you 
walk  with  me  so  far,  Mr.  Cary  ?" 

"  To  the  world's  end,  if  your  Ladyship  condescends  so  far." 
And  off  they  went,  Lady  Grenvile  wishing  that  they  were 
going  anywhere  else,  but  afraid  to  let  Cary  go  alone ;  and  sus- 
pecting, too,  that  some  one  or  other  ought  to  go. 

So  they  went  down  past  the  herds  of  deer,  by  a  trim-kept 
path  into  the  lonely  dell  where  stood  the  fatal  oak  ;  and,  as  they 
went,  Lady  Grenvile,  to  avoid  more  unpleasant  talk,  poured 
into  Gary's  unheeding  ears  the  story  (which  he  probably  had 
heard  fifty  times  before)  how  old  Chief-justice  Hankford 
(whom  some  contradictory  myths  make  the  man  who  com- 
mitted Prince  Henry  to  prison  for  striking  him  on  the  bench), 
weary  of  life  and  sickened  at  the  horrors  and  desolations  of 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  went  down  to  his  house  at  Anneiy 
there,  and  bade  his  keeper  shoot  any  man  who,  passing  through 
the  deer-park  at  night,  should  refuse  to  stand  when  challenged; 
and  then  going  down  into  that  glen  himself,  and  hiding  him- 
self beneath  that  oak,  met  willingly  by  his  keeper's  hand  the 
death  which  his  own  dared  not  inflict :  but  ere  the  story  was 
half  done,  Cary  grasped  Lady  Greuvile's  hand  so  tightly  that 
she  gave  a  little  shriek  of  pain. 

"There  they  are!"  whispered  he,  heedless  of  her;  and 
pointed  to  the  oak,  where,  half  hidden  by  the  tall  fern,  stood 
Rose  and  the  Spaniard. 

Her  head  was  on  his  bosom.     She  seemed  sobbing,  trem- 


250  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII 

bling ;  he  talking  earnestly  and  passionately ;  but  Lady  Gren- 
vile's  little  shriek  made  them  both  look  up.  To  turn  and  try 
to  escape  was  to  confess  all ;  and  the  two,  collecting  themselves 
instantly,  walked  towards  her,  Rose  wishing  herself  fathoms 
deep  beneath  the  earth. 

"Mind,  sir,"  whispered  Lady  Grenvile  as  they  came  up; 
"  you  have  seen  nothing." 

"Madam?" 

"If  you  are  not  on  my  ground,  you  are  on  my  brother's. 
Obey  me  !" 

Gary  bit  his  lip,  and  bowed  courteously  to  the  Don. 

"I  have  to  congratulate  you,  I  hear,  SeSor,  on  your 
approaching  departure." 

"  I  kiss  your  hands,  SeSor,  in  return ;  but  I  question 
whether  it  be  a  matter  of  congratulation,  considering  all  that  I 
leave  behind." 

"  So  do  I,"  answered  Gary  bluntly  enough,  and  the  four 
walked  back  to  the  house,  Lady  Grenvile  taking  everything  for 
granted  with  the  most  charming  good  humour,  and  chatting  to 
her  three  silent  companions  till  they  gained  the  terrace  once 
more,  and  found  four  or  five  of  the  gentlemen,  with  Sir  Richard 
at  their  head,  proceeding  to  the  bowling-green. 

Lady  Grenvile,  in  an  agony  of  fear  about  the  quarrel  which 
she  knew  must  come,  would  have  gladly  whispered  five  words 
to  her  husband  :  but  she  dared  not  do  it  before  the  Spaniard, 
and  dreaded,  too,  a  faint  or  a  scream  from  the  Rose,  whose 
father  was  of  the  party.  So  she  walked  on  with  her  fair 
prisoner,  commanding  Gary  to  escort  them  in,  and  the  Spaniard 
to  go  to  the  bowling-green. 

Gary  obeyed :  but  he  gave  her  the  slip  the  moment  she 
was  inside  the  door,  and  then  darted  off  to  the  gentlemen. 

His  heart  was  on  fire :  all  his  old  passion  for  the  Rose  had 
flashed  up  again  at  the  sight  of  her  with  a  lover ; — and  that 
lover  a  Spaniard  !  He  would  cut  his  throat  for  him,  if  steel 
could  do  it !  Only  he  recollected  that  Salterne  was  there,  and 
shrank  from  exposing  Rose ;  and  shrank,  too,  as  every  gentle- 
man should,  from  making  a  public  quarrel  in  another  man's 
house.  Never  mind.  Where  there  was  a  will  there  was  a 
way.  He  could  get  him  into  a  corner,  and  quarrel  with  him 
privately  about  the  cut  of  his  beard,  or  the  colour  of  his  ribbon. 
So  in  he  went ;  and,  luckily  or  unluckily,  found  standing  together 
apart  from  the  rest,  Sir  Richard,  the  Don,  and  young  St.  Leger. 

"  Well,  Don  Guzman,  you  have  given  us  wine-bibbers  the 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  251 

slip   this  afternoon.     I  hope  you   have  been   well  employed 
in  the  meanwhile  ?" 

"  Delightfully  to  myself,  Seiior,"  said  the  Don,  who,  enraged 
at  being  interrupted,  if  not  discovered,  was  as  ready  to  fight  as 
Gary,  but  disliked,  of  course,  an  explosion  as  much  as  he  did ; 
"  and  to  others,  I  doubt  not." 

"  So  the  ladies  say,"  quoth  St.  Leger.  "  He  has  been 
making  them  all  cry  with  one  of  his  stories,  and  robbing  us 
meanwhile  of  the  pleasure  we  had  hoped  for  from  some  of  his 
Spanish  songs." 

"  The  devil  take  Spanish  songs  !"  said  Gary,  in  a  low  voice, 
but  loud  enough  for  the  Spaniard.  Don  Guzman  clapt  his 
hand  on  his  sword-hilt  instantly.  » 

"  Lieutenant  Gary,"  said  Sir  Richard  in  a  stern  voice ;  "  the 
wine  has  surely  made  you  forget  yourself!" 

"As  sober  as  yourself,  most  worshipful  knight;  but  if  you 
want  a  Spanish  song,  here's  one ;  and  a  very  scurvy  one  it  is, 
like  its  subject — 

"  Don  Desperado 

Walked  on  the  Prado, 
And  there  he  met  his  enemy. 
He  pulled  out  a  knife,  a, 
And  let  out  his  life,  a, 
And  fled  for  his  own  across  the  sea. 

And  he  bowed  low  to  the  Spaniard. 

The  insult  was  too  gross  to  require  any  spluttering. 

"  Senor  Gary,  we  meet  1" 

"  I  thank  your  quick  apprehension,  Don  Guzman  Maria 
Magdalena  Sotomayor  de  Soto.  When,  where,  and  with  what 
weapons?" 

"  For  God's  sake,  gentlemen  !  Nephew  Arthur,  Gary  is 
your  guest ;  do  you  know  the  meaning  of  this  ?"  , 

St.  Leger  was  silent.     Gary  answered  for  him. 

"  An  old  Irish  quarrel,  I  assure  you,  sir.  A  matter  of  years' 
standing.  In  unlacing  the  Senor's  helmet,  the  evening  that  he 
was  taken  prisoner,  I  was  unlucky  enough  to  twitch  his  mus- 
tachios.  You  recollect  the  fact,  of  course,  Seiior  ?" 

"  Perfectly,"  said  the  Spaniard  ;  and  then,  half-amused  and 
half-pleased,  in  spite  of  his  bitter  wrath,  at  Gary's  quickness 
and  delicacy  in  shielding  Rose,  he  bowed,  and 

"  And  it  gives  me  much  pleasure  to  find  that  he  whom  I 
trust  to  have  the  pleasure  of  killing  to-morrow  morning  is  a 
gentleman  whose  nice  sense  of  honour  renders  him  thoroughly 
worthy  of  the  sword  of  a  De  Soto. " 


252  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  xn. 

Gary  bowed  in  return,  while  Sir  Richard,  who  saw  plainly 
enough  that  the  excuse  was  feigned,  shrugged  his  shoulders. 

"  What  weapons,  Seiior  ?"  asked  Will  again. 

"  I  should  have  preferred  a  horse  and  pistols,"  said  Don 
Guzman  after  a  moment,  half  to  himself,  and  in  Spanish ;  "  they 
make  surer  work  of  it  than  bodkins  ;  but"  (with  a  sigh  and  one 
of  his  smiles)  "  beggars  must  not  be  choosers." 

"  The  best  horse  in  my  stable  is  at  your  service,  Sefior," 
said  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  instantly. 

"  And  in  mine  also,  Seiior,"  said  Gary ;  "  and  I  shall  be 
happy  to  allow  you  a  week  to  train  him,  if  he  does  not  answer 
at  first  to  a  Spanish  hand." 

"You 'forget  in  your  courtesy,  gentle  sir,  that  the  insult 
being  with  me,  the  time  lies  with  me  also.  We  wipe  it  off 
to-morrow  morning  with  simple  rapiers  and  daggers.  Who  is 
your  second  ?" 

"  Mr.  Arthur  St.  Leger  here,  Senor  :  who  is  yours  ?" 

The  Spaniard  felt  himself  alone  in  the  world  for  one 
moment ;  and  then  answered  with  another  of  his  smiles, — 

"  Your  nation  possesses  the  soul  of  honour.  He  who  fights 
an  Englishman  needs  no  second." 

"  And  he  who  fights  among  Englishmen  will  always  find 
one,"  said  Sir  Richard.  "  I  am  the  fittest  second  for  my 
guest." 

"  You  only  add  one  more  obligation,  illustrious  cavalier,  to 
a  two-years'  prodigality  of  favours,  which  I  shall  never  be  able 
to  repay." 

"But,  Nephew  Arthur,"  said  Grenvile,  "you  cannot  surely 
be  second  against  your  father's  guest,  and  your  own  uncle." 

"  I  cannot  help  it,  sir ;  I  am  bound  by  an  oath,  as  Will  can 
tell  you.  ,1  suppose  you  won't  think  it  necessary  to  let  me 
blood?" 

"You  half  deserve  it,  sirrah  !"  said  Sir  Richard,  who  was 
very  angry :  but  the  Don  interposed  quickly. 

"  Heaven  forbid,  Seiiors  !  We  are  no  French  duellists,  who 
are  mad  enough  to  make  four  or  six  lives  answer  for  the  sins  of 
two.  This  gentleman  and  I  have  quarrel  enough  between  us, 
I  suspect,  to  make  a  right  bloody  encounter." 

"  The  dependence  is  good  enough,  sir,"  said  Gary,  licking 
his  sinful  lips  at  the  thought.  "Very  well.  Rapiers  and 
shirts  at  three  to-morrow  morning — Is  that  the  bill  of  fare  ? 
Ask  Sir  Richard  where,  Atty  ?  It  is  against  punctilio  now  for 
me  to  speak  to  him  till  after  I  am  killed." 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  253 

"  On  the  sands  opposite.  The  tide  will  be  out  at  three. 
And  now,  gallant  gentlemen,  let  us  join  the  bowlers." 

And  so  they  went  back  and  spent  a  merry  evening,  all 
except  poor  Rose,  who,  ere  she  went  back,  had  poured  all  her 
sorrows  into  Lady  Grenvile's  ear.  For  the  kind  woman,  know- 
ing that  she  was  motherless  and  guileless,  carried  her  off  into 
Mrs.  St.  Leger's  chamber,  and  there  entreated  her  to  tell  the 
truth,  and  heaped  her  with  pity,  but  with  no  comfort.  For 
indeed,  what  comfort  was  there  to  give  ? 

Three  o'clock,  upon  a  still  pure  bright  Midsummer  morn- 
ing. A  broad  and  yellow  sheet  of  ribbed  tide-sands,  through 
which  the  shallow  river  wanders  from  one  hill-foot  to  the 
other,  whispering  round  dark  knolls  of  rock,  and  under  low 
tree-fringed  cliffs,  and  banks  of  golden  broom.  A  mile  below, 
the  long  bridge  and  the  white  walled  town,  all  steeping  pearly 
in  the  soft  haze,  beneath  a  cloudless  vault  of  blue.  The 
white  glare  of  dawn,  which  last  night  hung  high  in  the  north- 
west, has  travelled  now  to  the  north-east,  and  above  the 
wooded  wall  of  the  hills  the  sky  is  flushing  with  rose  and 
amber. 

A  long  line  of  gulls  goes  wailing  up  inland ;  the  rooks  from 
Annery  come  cawing  and  sporting  round  the  corner  at  Land- 
cross,  while  high  above  them  four  or  five  herons  flap  solemnly 
along  to  find  their  breakfast  on  the  shallows.  The  pheasants 
and  partridges  are  clucking  merrily  in  the  long  wet  grass ; 
every  copse  and  hedgerow  rings  with  the  voice  of  birds  :  but 
the  lark,  who  has  been  singing  since  midnight  in  the  "  blank 
height  of  the  dark,"  suddenly  hushes  his  carol  and  drops  head- 
long among  the  corn,  as  a  broad-winged  buzzard  swings  from 
some  wooded  peak  into  the  abyss  of  the  valley,  and  hangs 
high-poised  above  the  heavenward  songster.  The  air  is  full  of 
perfume ;  sweet  clover,  new-mown  hay,  the  fragrant  breath  of 
kine,  the  dainty  scent  of  sea-weed  wreaths  and  fresh  wet  sand. 
Glorious  day,  glorious  place,  "  bridal  of  earth  and  sky,"  decked 
well  with  bridal  garlands,  bridal  perfumes,  bridal  songs, — 
What  do  those  four  cloaked  figures  there  by  the  river  brink,  a 
dark  spot  on  the  fair  face  of  the  summer  morn  ? 

Yet  one  is  as  cheerful  as  if  he  too,  like  all  nature  round 
him,  were  going  to  a  wedding;  and  that  is  Will  Gary.  He 
has  been  bathing  down  below,  to  cool  his  brain  and  steady  his 
hand ;  and  he  intends  to  stop  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena 
Sotomayor  de  Soto's  wooing  for  ever  and  a  day.  The  Spaniard 


254  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

is  in  a  very  different  mood  ;  fierce  and  haggard,  he  is  pacing  up 
and  down  the  sand.  He  intends  to  kill  Will  Gary  ;  but  then  ? 
Will  he  be  the  nearer  to  Rose  by  doing  so  1  Can  he  stay  in 
Bideford  1  Will  she  go  with  him  ?  Shall  he  stoop  to  stain 
his  family  by  marrying  a  burgher's  daughter  1  It  is  a  confused, 
all  but  desperate  business  ;  and  Don  Guzman  is  certain  but  of 
one  thing,  that  he  is  madly  in  love  with  this  fair  witch,  and 
that  if  she  refuse  him,  then,  rather  than  see  her  accept  another 
man,  he  would  kill  her  with  his  own  hands. 

Sir  Richard  Grenvile  too  is  in  no  very  pleasant  humour,  as 
St.  Leger  soon  discovers,  when  the  two  seconds  begin  whisper- 
ing over  their  arrangements. 

"  We  cannot  have  either  of  them  killed,  Arthur." 

"  Mr.  Gary  swears  he  will  kill  the  Spaniard,  sir." 

"  He  shan't.  The  Spaniard  is  my  guest.  I  am  answer- 
able for  him  to  Leigh,  and  for  his  ransom  too.  And  how  can 
Leigh  accept  the  ransom  if  the  man  is  not  given  up  safe  and 
sound  ?  They  won't  pay  for  a  dead  carcass,  boy  !  The  man's 
life  is  worth  two  hundred  pounds." 

"  A  very  bad  bargain,  sir,  for  those  who  pay  the  said  two 
hundred  for  the  rascal ;  but  what  if  he  kills  Gary  T' 

"  Worse  still.  Gary  must  not  be  killed.  I  am  very  angry 
with  him,  but  he  is  too  good  a  lad  to  be  lost  ;  and  his  father 
would  never  forgive  us.  We  must  strike  up  their  swords  at 
the  first  scratch." 

"  It  will  make  them  very  mad,  sir." 

"  Hang  them  !  let  them  fight  us  then,  if  they  don't  like 
our  counsel.  It  must  be,  Arthur." 

"Be  sure,  sir,"  said  Arthur,  "that  whatsoever  you  shall 
command  I  shall  perform.  It  is  only  too  great  an  honour  to  a 
young  man  as  I  am  to  find  myself  in  the  same  duel  with 
your  worship,  and  to  have  the  advantage  of  your  wisdom  and 
experience." 

Sir  Richard  smiles,  and  says — "  Now,  gentlemen  !  are  you 
ready  1" 

The  Spaniard  pulls  out  a  little  crucifix,  and  kisses  it 
devoutly,  smiting  on  his  breast ;  crosses  himself  two  or  three 
times,  and  says — "  Most  willingly,  Seiior." 

Gary  kisses  no  crucifix,  but  says  a  prayer  nevertheless. 

Cloaks  and  doublets  are  tossed  off,  the  men  placed,  the 
rapiers  measured  hilt  and  point  ;  Sir  Richard  and  St.  Leger 
place  themselves  right  and  left  of  the  combatants,  facing  each 
other,  the  points  of  their  drawn  swords  on  the  sand.  Gary 


CHAP.  XII.]  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  255 

and  the  Spaniard  stand  for  a  moment  quite  upright,  their 
sword-arms  stretched  straight  before  them,  holding  the  long 
rapier  horizontally,  the  left  hand  clutching  the  dagger  close 
to  their  breasts.  So  they  stand  eye  to  eye,  with  clenched 
teeth  and  pale  crushed  lips,  while  men  might  count  a  score  ; 
St.  Leger  can  hear  the  beating  of  his  own  heart ;  Sir  Richard 
is  praying  inwardly  that  no  life  may  be  lost.  Suddenly  there 
is  a  quick  turn  of  Gary's  wrist  and  a  leap  forward.  The 
Spaniard's  dagger  flashes,  and  the  rapier  is  turned  aside  ;  Gary 
springs  six  feet  back  as  the  Spaniard  rushes  on  him  in  turn. 
Parry,  thrust,  parry — the  steel  rattles,  the  sparks  fly,  the  men 
breathe  fierce  and  loud  ;  the  devil's  game  is  begun  in  earnest. 

Five  minutes  have  the  two  had  instant  death  a  short  six 
inches  off  from  those  wild  sinful  hearts  of  theirs,  and  not  a 
scratch  has  been  given.  Yes !  the  Spaniard's  rapier  passes 
under  Gary's  left  arm ;  he  bleeds. 

"A  hit!  a  hit!  Strike  up,  Atty !"  and  the  swords  are 
struck  up  instantly. 

Gary,  nettled  by  the  smart,  tries  to  close  with  his  foe,  but 
the  seconds  cross  their  swords  before  him. 

"  It  is  enough,  gentlemen.  Don  Guzman's  honour  is 
satisfied  !" 

"  But  not  my  revenge,  Senor,"  says  the  Spaniard,  with  a 
frown.  "  This  duel  is  ct  Voutrance,  on  my  part ;  and,  I  believe, 
on  Mr.  Gary's  also." 

"By  heaven,  it  is  !"  says  Will,  trying  to  push  past.  "  Let 
me  go,  Arthur  St.  Leger ;  one  of  us  must  down.  Let  me  go, 
I  say!" 

"  If  you  stir,  Mr.  Gary,  you  have  to  do  with  Richard  Gren- 
vile  ! "  thunders  the  lion  voice.  "  I  am  angry  enough  with  you 
for  having  brought  on  this  duel  at  all.  Don't  provoke  me  still 
further,  young  hot-head  ! " 

Gary  stops  sulkily. 

"  You  do  not  know  all,  Sir  Richard,  or  you  would  not  speak 
in  this  way." 

"I  do,  sir,  all :  and  I  shall  have  the  honour  of  talking  it 
over  with  Don  Guzman  myself." 

"  Hey !"  said  the  Spaniard.  "You  came  here  as  my  second, 
Sir  Richard,  as  I  understood :  but  not  as  my  counsellor." 

"  Arthur,  take  your  man  away !  Gary  !  obey  me  as  you 
would  your  father,  sir  !  Can  you  not  trust  Richard  Grenvile  ?" 

"Come  away,  for  God's  sake  !"  says  poor  Arthur,  dragging 
Gary's  sword  from  him ;  "Sir  Richard  must  know  best !" 


256  HOW  BIDEFORD  BRIDGE  [CHAP.  XII. 

So  Gary  is  led  off  sulking,  and  Sir  Richard  turns  to  the 
Spaniard, 

"  And  now,  Don  Guzman,  allow  me,  though  much  against 
my  will,  to  speak  to  you  as  a  friend  to  a  friend.  You  will 
pardon  me  if  I  say  that  I  cannot  but  have  seen  last  night's 
devotion  to " 

"  You  will  be  pleased,  Senor,  not  to  mention  the  name  of 
any  lady  to  whom  I  may  have  shown  devotion.  I  am  not 
accustomed  to  have  my  little  affairs  talked  over  by  any  unbidden 
counsellors." 

"  Well,  Senor,  if  you  take  offence,  you  take  that  which  is 
not  given.  Only  I  warn  you,  with  all  apologies  for  any  seem- 
ing forwardness,  that  the  quest  on  which  you  seem  to  be  is  one 
on  which  you  will  not  be  allowed  to  proceed." 

"And  who  will  stop  me  1"  asked  the  Spaniard,  with  a  fierce 
oath. 

"You  are  not  aware,  illustrious  Senor,"  said  Sir  Richard, 
parrying  the  question,  "  that  our  English  laity  look  upon  mixed 
marriages  with  full  as  much  dislike  as  your  own  ecclesiastics." 

"Marriage,  sir?  Who  gave  you  leave  to  mention  that 
word  to  me  1" 

Sir  Richard's  brow  darkened ;  the  Spaniard,  in  his  insane 
pride,  had  forced  upon  the  good  knight  a  suspicion  which  was 
not  really  just. 

"Is  it  possible,  then,  Senor  Don  Guzman,  that  I  am  to 
have  the  shame  of  mentioning  a  baser  word  V 

"  Mention  what  you  will,  sir.  All  words  are  the  same  to 
me ;  for,  just  or  unjust,  I  shall  answer  them  alike  only  by  my 
sword." 

"  You  will  do  no  such  thing,  sir.  You  forget  that  I  am 
your  host." 

"  And  do  you  suppose  that  you  have  therefore  a  right  to 
insult  me  1  Stand  on  your  guard,  sir  !" 

Grenvile  answered  by  slapping  his  own  rapier  home  into 
the  sheath  with  a  quiet  smile. 

"  Senor  Don  Guzman  must  be  well  enough  aware  of  who 
Richard  Grenvile  is,  to  know  that  he  may  claim  the  right  of 
refusing  duel  to  any  man,  if  he  shall  so  think  fit." 

" Sir!"  cried  the  Spaniard  with  an  oath,  "this  is  too  much! 
Do  you  dare  to  hint  that  I  am  unworthy  of  your  sword?  Know, 
insolent  Englishman,  I  am  not  merely  a  De  Soto, — though 
that,  by  St.  James,  were  enough  for  you  or  any  man.  I  am 
a  Sotomayor,  a  Mendoza,  a  Bovadilla,  a  Losada,  a sir! 


CHAP.  XII. J  DINED  AT  ANNERY  HOUSE.  257 

I  have  blood  royal  in  ray  veins,  and  you  dare  to  refuse  my 
challenge?" 

"  Richard  Grenvile  can  show  quarterings,  probably,  against 
even  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena  Sotomayor  de  Soto,  or 
against  (with  no  offence  to  the  unquestioned  nobility  of  your 
pedigree)  the  bluest  blood  of  Spain.  But  he  can  show,  more- 
over, thank  God,  a  reputation  which  raises  him  as  much  above 
the  imputation  of  cowardice,  as  it  does  above  that  of  discourtesy. 
If  you  think  fit,  Seiior,  to  forget  what  you  have  just,  in  very 
excusable  anger,  vented,  and  to  return  with  me,  you  will  find 
me  still,  as  ever,  your  most  faithful  servant  and  host.  If  other- 
wise, you  have  only  to  name  whither  you  wish  your  mails  to  be 
sent,  and  I  shall,  with  unfeigned  borrow,  obey  your  commands 
concerning  them." 

The  Spaniard  bowed  stiffly,  answered,  "  To  the  nearest 
tavern,  Senor,"  and  then  strode  away.  His  baggage  was  sent 
thither.  He  took  a  boat  down  to  Appledore  that  very  after- 
noon, and  vanished,  none  knew  whither.  A  very  courteous 
note  to  Lady  Grenvile,  enclosing  the  jewel  which  he  had  been 
used  to  wear  round  his  neck,  was  the  only  memorial  he  left 
behind  him :  except,  indeed,  the  scar  on  Gary's  arm,  and  poor 
Rose's  broken  heart. 

Now  county  towns  are  scandalous  places  at  best ;  and 
though  all  parties  tried  to  keep  the  duel  secret,  yet,  of  course, 
before  noon  all  Bideford  knew  what  had  happened,  and  a  great 
deal  more ;  and  what  was  even  worse,  Rose,  in  an  agony  of 
terror,  had  seen  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  enter  her  father's  private 
room,  and  sit  there  closeted  with  him  for  an  hour  and  more ; 
and  when  he  went,  upstairs  came  old  Salterne,  with  his  stick 
in  his  hand,  and  after  rating  her  soundly  for  far  worse  than  a 
flirt,  gave  her  (I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say  it,  but  such  was  the 
mild  fashion  of  paternal  rule  in  those  times,  even  over  such 
daughters  as  Lady  Jane  Grey,  if  Roger  Ascham  is  to  be  believed) 
such  a  beating  that  her  poor  sides  were  black  and  blue  for  many 
a  day ;  and  then  putting  her  on  a  pillion  behind  him,  carried 
her  off  twenty  miles  to  her  old  prison  at  Stow  Mill,  command- 
ing her  aunt  to  tame  down  her  saucy  blood  with  bread  of  afflic- 
tion and  water  of  affliction.  Which  commands  were  willingly 
enough  fulfilled  by  the  old  dame,  who  had  always  borne  a 
grudge  against  Rose  for  being  rich  while  she  was  poor,  and 
pretty  while  her  daughter  was  plain;  so  that  between  flouts, 
and  sneers,  and  watchings,  and  pretty  open  hints  that  she  was 
a  disgrace  to  her  family,  and  no  better  than  she  should  be,  the 


258  HOW  THE  GOLDEN  HIND  [CHAP.  xin. 

poor  innocent  child  watered  her  couch  with  her  tears  for  a  fort- 
night or  more,  stretching  out  her  hands  to  the  wide  Atlantic, 
and  calling  wildly  to  Don  Guzman  to  return  and  take  her  where 
he  would,  and  she  would  live  for  him  and  die  for  him ;  and  per- 
haps she  did  not  call  in  vain. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HOW   THE   GOLDEN    HIND   CAME   HOME   AGAIN. 

' '  The  spirits  of  your  fathers 

Shall  start  from  every  wave  ; 
For  the  deck  it  was  their  field  of  fame, 
And  ocean  was  their  grave." 

CAMPBELL. 

"  So  you  see,  my  dear  Mrs.  Hawkins,  having  the  silver,  as  your 
own  eyes  show  you,  beside  the  ores  of  lead,  manganese,  and 
copper,  and  above  all  this  gossan  (as  the  Cornish  call  it),  which 
I  suspect  to  be  not  merely  the  matrix  of  the  ore,  but  also  the 
very  crude  form  and  materia  prima  of  all  metals — you  mark 
me  1 — If  my  recipes,  which  I  had  from  Doctor  Dee,  succeed  only 
half  so  well  as  I  expect,  then  I  refine  out  the  Luna,  the  silver, 
lay  it  by,  and  transmute  the  remaining  ores  into  Sol,  gold. 
Whereupon  Peru  and  Mexico  become  superfluities,  and  England 
the  mistress  of  the  globe.  Strange,  no  doubt;  distant,  no  doubt : 
but  possible,  my  dear  madam,  possible  ! " 

"  And  what  good  to  you  if  it  be,  Mr.  Gilbert  1  If  you  could 
find  a  philosopher's  stone  to  turn  sinners  into  saints,  now : — 
but  nought  save  God's  grace  can  do  that  t  and  that  last  seems 
ofttimes  over  long  in  coming."  And  Mrs.  Hawkins  sighed. 

"  But  indeed,  my  dear  madam,  conceive  now. — The  Comb 
Martin  mine  thus  becomes  a  gold  mine,  perhaps  inexhaustible ; 
yields  me  where  withal  to  carry  out  my  North- West  patent;  mean- 
while my  brother  Humphrey  holds  Newfoundland,  and  builds 
me  fresh  ships  year  by  year  (for  the  forests  of  pine  are  bound- 
less) for  my  China  voyage." 

"  Sir  Humphrey  has  better  thoughts  in  his  dear  heart  than 
gold,  Mr.  Adrian ;  a  very  close  and  gracious  walker  he  has  been 
this  seven  year.  I  wish  my  Captain  John  were  so  too." 

"  And  how  do  you  know  I  have  nought  better  in  my  mind's 
eye  than  gold  1  Or,  indeed,  what  better  could  I  have  ^  Is  not 
gold  the  Spaniard's  strength — the  very  mainspring  of  Antichrist? 


CHAP.  XIII.]  CAME  HOME  AGAIN.  259 

By  gold  only,  therefore,  can  we  out-wrestle  him.  You  shake 
your  head  :  but  say,  dear  madam  (for  gold  England  must  have), 
which  is  better,  to  make  gold  bloodlessly  at  home,  or  take  it 
bloodily  abroad  ?" 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Gilbert,  Mr.  Gilbert !  is  it  not  written,  that  those 
who  make  haste  to  be  rich,  pierce  themselves  through  with  many 
sorrows?  Oh,  Mr.  Gilbert !  God's  blessing  is  not  on  it  all." 

"  Not  on  you,  madam  1  Be  sure  that  brave  Captain  John 
Hawkins's  star  told  me  a  different  tale,  when  I  cast  his  nativity 
for  him. — Born  under  stormy  planets,  truly :  but  under  right 
royal  and  fortunate  ones." 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Adrian  !  I  am  a  simple  body,  and  you  a  great 
philosopher  :  but  I  hold  there  is  no  star  for  the  seaman  like  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem ;  and  that  goes  with  '  peace  on  earth  and 
good  will  to  men,'  and  not  with  such  arms  as  that,  Mr.  Adrian. 
I  can't  abide  to  look  upon  them." 

And  she  pointed  up  to  one  of  the  bosses  of  the  ribbed  oak- 
roof,  on  which  was  emblazoned  the  fatal  crest  which  Clarencieux 
Hervey  had  granted  years  before  to  her  husband,  the  "  Demi- 
Moor  proper,  bound." 

"  Ah,  Mr.  Gilbert !  since  first  he  went  to  Guinea  after  those 
poor  negroes,  little  lightness  has  my  heart  known  ;  and  the  very 
day  that  that  crest  was  put  up  in  our  grand  new  house,  as  the 
parson  read  the  first  lesson,  there  was  this  text  in  it,  Mr.  Gil- 
bert, '  Woe  to  him  that  buildeth  his  house  by  iniquity,  and  his 
chambers  by  wrong.  Shalt  thou  live  because  thou  closest  thy- 
self in  cedar  V  And  it  went  into  my  ears  like  fire,  Mr.  Gilbert, 
and  into  my  heart  like  lead  ;  and  when  the  parson  went  on, 
'  Did  not  thy  father  eat  and  drink,  and  do  judgment  and  justice? 
Then  it  was  well  with  him,'  I  thought  of  good  old  Captain  Will ; 
and — I  tell  you,  Mr.  Gilbert,  those  negroes  are  on  my  soul  from 
morning  until  night !  We  are  all  mighty  grand  now,  and  money 
comes  in  fast :  but  the  Lord  will  require  the  blood  of  them  at 
our  hands  yet,  He  will !" 

"  My  dearest  madam,  who  can  prosper  more  than  you  1  If 
your  husband  copied  the  Dons  too  closely  once  or  twice  in  the 
matter  of  those  negroes  (which  I  do  not  deny),  was  he  not 
punished  at  once  when  he  lost  ships,  men,  all  but  life,  at  St. 
Juan  d'Ulloa?" 

"  Ay,  yes,"  she  said  ;  "  and  that  did  give  me  a  bit  of  comfort, 
especially  when  the  queen — God  save  her  tender  heart  ! — was  so 
sharp  with  him  for  pity  of  the  poor  wretches  :  but  it  has  not 
mended  him.  He  is  growing  fast  like  the  rest  now,  Mr.  Gilbert, 


260  HOW  THE  GOLDEN  HIND  [CHAP.  xin. 

greedy  to  win,  and  niggardly  to  spend  (God  forgive  him  !)  and 
always  fretting  and  plotting  for  some  new  gain,  and  envying 
and  grudging  at  Drake,  and  all  who  are  deeper  in  the  snare  of 
prosperity  than  he  is.  Gold,  gold,  nothing  but  gold  in  every 
mouth — there  it  is  !  Ah  !  I  mind  when  Plymouth  was  a  quiet 
little  God-fearing  place  as  God  could  smile  upon  :  .but  ever  since 
my  John,  and  Sir  Francis,  and  poor  Mr.  Oxenham  found  out 
the  way  to  the  Indies,  it's  been  a  sad  place.  Not  a  sailor's  wife 
but  is  crying  '  Give,  give,'  like  the  daughters  of  the  horse-leech ; 
and  every  woman  must  drive  her  husband  out  across  seas  to 
bring  her  home  money  to  squander  on  hoods  and  farthingales, 
and  go  mincing  with  outstretched  necks,  and  wanton  eyes ;  and 
they  will  soon  learn  to  do  worse  than  that,  for  the  sake  of  gain. 
But  the  Lord's  hand  will  be  against  their  tires  and  crisping- 
pins,  their  mufflers  and  farthingales,  as  it  was  against  the  Jews 
of  old.  Ah,  dear  me  !" 

The  two  interlocutors  in  this  dialogue  were  sitting  in  a  low 
oak-panelled  room  in  Plymouth  town,  handsomely  enough  fur- 
nished, adorned  with  carving  and  gilding  and  coats  of  arms,  and 
noteworthy  for  many  strange  knicknacks,  Spanish  gold  and  silver 
vessels  on  the  sideboard ;  strange  birds  and  skins,  and  charts 
and  rough  drawings  of  coast  which  hung  about  the  room ;  while 
over  the  fireplace,  above  the  portrait  of  old  Captain  Will 
Hawkins,  pet  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  hung  the  Spanish  ensign 
which  Captain  John  had  taken  in  fair  fight  at  Rio  de  la  Hacha 
fifteen  years  before,  when,  with  two  hundred  men,  he  seized  the 
town  in  despite  of  ten  hundred  Spanish  soldiers,  and  watered 
his  ship  triumphantly  at  the  enemy's  wells. 

The  gentleman  was  a  tall  fair  man,  with  a  broad  and  lofty 
forehead,  wrinkled  with  study,  and  eyes  weakened  by  long  por- 
ing over  the  crucible  and  the  furnace. 

The  lady  had  once  been  comely  enough  :  but  she  was  aged 
and  worn,  as  sailors'  wives  are  apt  to  be,  by  many  sorrows. 
Many  a  sad  day  had  she  had  already ;  for  although  John 
Hawkins,  port-admiral  of  Plymouth,  and  Patriarch  of  British 
shipbuilders,  was  a  faithful  husband  enough,  and  as  ready  to 
forgive  as  he  was  to  quarrel,  yet  he  was  obstinate  and  ruthless, 
and  in  spite  of  his  religiosity  (for  all  men  were  religious  then) 
was  by  no  means  a  "  consistent  walker." 

And  sadder  days  were  in  store  for  her,  poor  soul.  Nine 
years  hence  she  would  be  asked  to  name  her  son's  brave  new 
ship,  and  would  christen  it  The  Repentance,  giving  no  reason 
in  her  quiet  steadfast  way  (so  says  her  son  Sir  Richard)  but  that 


CHAP.  Xin.]  CAME  HOME  AGAIN.  261 

"  Repentance  was  the  best  ship  in  which  we  could  sail  to  the 
harbour  of  heaven ;"  and  she  would  hear  that  Queen  Elizabeth, 
complaining  of  the  name  for  an  unlucky  one,  had  re-christened 
her  The  Dainty,  not  without  some  by-quip,  perhaps,  at  the  cha- 
racter of  her  most  dainty  captain,  Richard  Hawkins,  the  com- 
plete seaman  and  Euphuist  afloat,  of  whom,  perhaps,  more  here- 
after. 

With  sad  eyes  Mrs.  (then  Lady)  Hawkins  would  see  that 
gallant  bark  sail  Westward-ho,  to  go  the  world  around,  as  many 
another  ship  sailed ;  and  then  wait,  as  many  a  mother  beside 
had  waited,  for  the  sail  which  never  returned ;  till,  dim  and 
uncertain,  came  tidings  of  her  boy  fighting  for  four  days  three 
great  Armadas  (for  the  coxcomb  had  his  father's  heart  in  him 
after  all),  a  prisoner,  wounded,  ruined,  languishing  for  weary 
years  in  Spanish  prisons.  And  a  sadder  day  than  that  was  in 
store,  when  a  gallant  fleet  should  round  the  Ram  Head,  not 
with  drum  and  trumpet,  but  with  solemn  minute-guns,  and  all 
flags  half-mast  high,  to  tell  her  that  her  terrible  husband's  work 
was  done,  his  terrible  heart  broken  by  failure  and  fatigue,  and 
his  body  laid  by  Drake's  beneath  the  far-off  tropic  seas. 

And  if,  at  the  close  of  her  eventful  life,  one  gleam  of  sun- 
shine opened  for  a  while,  when  her  boy  Richard  returned  to  her 
bosom  from  his  Spanish  prison,  to  be  knighted  for  his  valour, 
and  made  a  Privy  Councillor  for  his  wisdom ;  yet  soon,  how 
soon,  was  the  old  cloud  to  close  in  again  above  her,  until  her 
weary  eyes  should  open  in  the  light  of  Paradise.  For  that  son 
dropped  dead,  some  say  at  the  very  council-table,  leaving  behind 
him  nought  but  broken  fortunes,  and  huge  purposes  which  never 
were  fulfilled ;  and  the  stormy  star  of  that  bold  race  was  set 
for  ever,  and  Lady  Hawkins  bowed  her  weary  head  and  died, 
the  groan  of  those  stolen  negroes  ringing  in  her  ears,  having 
lived  long  enough  to  see  her  husband's  youthful  sin  become  a 
national  institution,  and  a  national  curse  for  generations  yet 
unborn. 

I  know  not  why  she  opened  her  heart  that  night  to  Adrian 
Gilbert,  with  a  frankness  which  she  would  hardly  have  dared 
to  use  to  her  own  family.  Perhaps  it  was  that  Adrian,  like  his 
great  brothers,  Humphrey  and  Raleigh,  was  a  man  full  of  all 
lofty  and  delicate  enthusiasms,  tender  and  poetical,  such  as 
women  cling  to  when  their  hearts  are  lonely ;  but  so  it  was ; 
and  Adrian,  half  ashamed  of  his  own  ambitious  dreams,  sate 
looking  at  her  a  while  in  silence ;  and  then — 

"  The  Lord  be  with  you,  dearest  lady.     Strange,  how  you 


262  HOW  THE  GOLDEN  HIND  [CHAP.  xill. 

women  sit  at  home  to  love  and  suffer,  while  we  men  rush  forth 
to  break  our  hearts  and  yours  against  rocks  of  our  own  seeking ! 
Ah  well !  were  it  not  for  Scripture,  I  should  have  thought  that 
Adam,  rather  than  Eve,  had  been  the  one  who  plucked  the  fruit 
of  the  forbidden  tree." 

"  We  women,  I  fear,  did  the  deed  nevertheless ;  for  we  bear 
the  doom  of  it  our  lives  long." 

"  You  always  remind  me,  madam,  of  my  dear  Mrs.  Leigh  of 
Burrough,  and  her  counsels." 

"  Do  you  see  her  often  ?  I  hear  of  her  as  one  of  the  Lord's 
most  precious  vessels." 

"  I  would  have  done  more  ere  now  than  see  her,"  said  he 
with  a  blush,  "  had  she  allowed  me  :  but  she  lives  only  for  the 
memory  of  her  husband  and  the  fame  of  her  noble  sons." 

"  As  he  spoke  the  door  opened,  and  in  walked,  wrapped  in 
his  rough  sea-gown,  none  other  than  one  of  those  said  noble  sons. 

Adrian  turned  pale. 

"  Amyas  Leigh  !  What  brings  you  hither  ?  How  fares 
my  brother?  Where  is  the  ship  V 

"Your  brother  is  well,  Mr.  Gilbert.  The  Golden  Hind  is 
gone  on  to  Dartmouth,  with  Mr.  Hayes.  I  came  ashore  here, 
meaning  to  go  north  to  Bideford,  ere  I  went  to  London.  I 
called  at  Drake's  just  now,  but  he  was  away." 

"  The  Golden  Hind  ?     What  brings  her  home  so  soon  1" 

"  Yet  welcome  ever,  sir,"  said  Mrs.  Hawkins.  "  This  is  a 
great  surprise,  though.  Captain  John  did  not  look  for  you  till 
next  year." 

Amyas  was  silent. 

"  Something  is  wrong  !"  cried  Adrian.     "  Speak  !" 

Amyas  tried,  but  could  not. 

"  Will  you  drive  a  man  mad,  sir  ?  Has  the  adventure 
failed  ?  You  said  my  brother  was  well " 

"  He  is  well." 

"  Then  what — Why  do  you  look  at  me  in  that  fashion,  sir1?" 
and  springing  up,  Adrian  rushed  forward,  and  held  the  candle 
to  Amyas's  face. 

Amyas's  lip  quivered,  as  he  laid  his  hand  on  Adrian's  shoulder. 

"  Your  great  and  glorious  brother,  sir,  is  better  bestowed 
than  in  settling  Newfoundland." 

"  Dead  V  shrieked  Adrian. 

"  He  is  with  the  God  whom  he  served !" 

•"He  was  always  with  Him,  like  Enoch:  parable  me  no 
parables,  if  you  love  me,  sir!" 


CHAP.  XIII.]  CAME  HOME  AGAIN.  263 

"  And,  like  Enoch,  he  was  not ;  for  God  took  him." 

Adrian  clasped  his  hands  over  his  forehead,  and  leaned 
against  the  table. 

"  Go  on,  sir,  go  on.     God  will  give  me  strength  to  hear  all." 

And  gradually  Amyas  opened  to  Adrian  that  tragic  story, 
which  Mr.  Hayes  has  long  ago  told  far  too  well  to  allow  a 
second  edition  of  it  from  me :  of  the  unruliness  of  the  men, 
ruffians,  as  I  said  before,  caught  up  at  hap-hazard ;  of  con- 
spiracies to  carry  off  the  ships,  plunder  of  fishing  vessels,  deser- 
tions multiplying  daily ;  licences  from  the  General  to  the  lazy 
and  fearful  to  return  home  :  till  Adrian  broke  out  with  a  groan — 

"  From  him  ?  Conspired  against  him  ?  Deserted  from 
him  1  Dotards,  buzzards  !  Where  would  they  have  found 
such  another  leader  ?" 

"Your  illustrious  brother,  sir,"  said  Amyas,  "if  you  will 
pardon  me,  was  a  very  great  philosopher,  but  not  so  much  of  a 
General." 

"  General,  sir  ?     Where  was  braver  man  V 

"  Not  on  God's  earth  :  but  that  does  not  make  a  General, 
sir.  If  Cortes  had  been  brave  and  no  more,  Mexico  would 
have  been  Mexico  still.  The  truth  is,  sir,  Cortes,  like  my 
Captain  Drake,  knew  when  to  hang  a  man;  and  your  great 
brother  did  not." 

Amyas,  as  I  suppose,  was  right.  Gilbert  was  a  man  who 
could  be  angry  enough  at  baseness  or  neglect,  but  who  was  too 
kindly  to  punish  it ;  he  was  one  who  could  form  the  wisest  and 
best-digested  plans,  but  who  could  not  stoop  to  that  hail-fellow- 
well-met  drudgery  among  his  subordinates  which  has  been  the 
talisman  of  great  captains. 

Then  Amyas  went  on  to  tell  the  rest  of  his  story  ;  the  set- 
ting sail  from  St.  John's  to  discover  the  southward  coast ;  Sir 
Humphrey's  chivalrous  determination  to  go  in  the  little  Squirrel 
of  only  ten  tons,  and  "overcharged  with  nettings,  fights,  and 
small  ordnance,"  not  only  because  she  was  more  fit  to  examine 
the  creeks,  but  because  he  had  heard  of  some  taunt  against  him 
among  the  men,  that  he  was  afraid  of  the  sea. 

After  that,  woe  on  woe ;  how,  seven  days  after  they  left 
Cape  Raz,  their  largest  ship,  the  Delight,  after  she  had  "  most 
part  of  the  night "  (I  quote  Hayes),  "  like  the  swan  that  singeth 
before  her  death,  continued  in  sounding  of  trumpets,  drums,  and 
fifes,  also  winding  of  the  cornets  and  hautboys,  and,  in  the  end 
of  their  jollity,  left  off  with  the  battle  and  doleful  knells," 
struck  the  next  day  (the  Golden  Hind  and  the  Squirrel  sheering 


264  HOW  THE  GOLDEN  HIND  [CHAP.  xm. 

oft' just  in  time)  upon  unknown  shoals  ;  where  were  lost  all  but 
fourteen,  and  among  them  Frank's  philosopher  friend,  poor 
Budaeus ;  and  those  who  escaped,  after  all  horrors  of  cold  and 
famine,  were  cast  on  shore  in  Newfoundland.  How,  worn  out 
with  hunger  and  want  of  clothes,  the  crews  of  the  two  remain- 
ing ships  persuaded  Sir  Humphrey  to  sail  toward  England  on 
the  31st  of  August ;  and  on  "  that  very  instant,  even  in  wind- 
ing about,"  beheld  close  alongside  "a  very  lion  in  shape,  hair, 
and  colour,  not  swimming,  but  sliding  on  the  water,  with  his 
whole  body ;  who  passed  along,  turning  his  head  to  and  fro, 
yawning  and  gaping  wide,  with  ugly  demonstration  of  long 
teeth  and  glaring  eyes ;  and  to  bid  us  farewell  (coining  right 
against  the  Hind)  he  sent  forth  a  horrible  voice,  roaring  or 
bellowing  as  doth  a  lion."  "What  opinion  others  had  thereof, 
and  chiefly  the  General  himself,  I  forbear  to  deliver ;  but  he 
took  it  for  bonum  omen,  rejoicing  that  he  was  to  war  against 
such  an  enemy,  if  it  were  the  devil." 

"And  the  devil  it  was,  doubtless,"  said  Adrian,  "the  roar- 
ing lion  who  goes  about  seeking  whom  he  may  devour." 

"  He  has  not  got  your  brother,  at  least,"  quoth  Amyas. 

"  No,"  rejoined  Mrs.  Hawkins  (smile  not,  reader,  for  those 
were  days  in  which  men  believed  in  the  devil) ;  "he  roared  for 
joy  to  think  how  many  poor  souls  would  be  left  still  in  heathen 
darkness  by  Sir  Humphrey's  death.  God  be  with  that  good 
knight,  and  send  all  mariners  where  he  is  now  !" 

Then  Amyas  told  the  last  scene ;  how,  when  they  were  oft 
the  Azores,  the  storms  came  on  heavier  than  ever,  with  "  terrible 
seas,  breaking  short  and  pyramid-wise,"  till,  on  the  9th  Sep- 
tember, the  tiny  Squirrel  nearly  foundered  and  yet  recovered ; 
"  and  the  General,  sitting  abaft  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  cried 
out  to  us  in  the  Hind  so  oft  as  we  did  approach  within  hearing, 
'We  are  as  near  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land,'  reiterating  the 
same  speech,  well  beseeming  a  soldier  resolute  in  Jesus  Christ, 
as  I  can  testify  he  was. 

"  The  same  Monday,  about  twelve  of  the  clock,  or  not  long 
after,  the  frigate  (the  Squirrel)  being  ahead  of  us  in  the  Golden 
Hind,  suddenly  her  lights  were  out ;  and  withal  our  watch 
cried,  the  General  was  cast  away,  which  was  true  ;  for  in  that 
moment,  the  frigate  \vas  devoured  and  swallowed  up  of  the  sea." 

And  so  ended  (I  have  used  Hayes'  own  words)  Amyas  Leigh's 
story. 

"Oh,  my  brother!  my  brother!"  moaned  poor  Adrian; 
"  the  glory  of  his  house,  the  glory  of  Devon  !" 


CHAf.  XIII.]  CAME  HOME  AGAIN.  265 

"  Ah  !  what  will  the  queen  say  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Hawkins 
through  her  tears. 

"  Tell  me,"  asked  Adrian,  "  had  he  the  jewel  on  when  he 
died  ?" 

"  The  queen's  jewel  1  He  always  wore  that,  and  his  own 
posy  too,  '  Mutare  vel  timere  sperno.'  He  wore  it;  and  he 
lived  it." 

"Ay,"  said  Adrian,  "the  same  to  the  last !" 

"  Not  quite  that,"  said  Amyas.  "  He  was  a  meeker  man 
latterly  than  he  used  to  be.  As  he  said  himself  once,  a  better 
refiner  than  any  whom  he  had  on  board  had  followed  him  close 
all  the  seas  over,  and  purified  him  in  the  fire.  And  gold  seven 
times  tried  he  was,  when  God,  having  done  His  work  in  him, 
took  him  home  at  last." 

And  so  the  talk  ended.  There  was  no  doubt  that  the 
expedition  had  been  an  utter  failure ;  Adrian  was  a  ruined 
man  ;  and  Amyas  had  lost  his  venture. 

Adrian  rose,  and  begged  leave  to  retire ;  he  must  collect 
himself. 

"Poor  gentleman  !"  said  Mrs.  Hawkins;  "it  is  little  else 
he  has  left  to  collect." 

"Or  I  either,"  said  Amyas.  " I  was  going  to  ask  you  to 
lend  me  one  of  your  son's  shirts,  and  five  pounds  to  get  myself 
and  my  men  home." 

"  Five  ?  Fifty,  Mr.  Leigh  !  God  forbid  that  John  Haw- 
kins's wife  should  refuse  her  last  penny  to  a  distressed  mariner, 
and  he  a  gentleman  born.  But  you  must  eat  and  drink." 

"  It's  more  than  I  have  done  for  many  a  day  worth  speak- 
ing of." 

And  Amyas  sat  down  in  his  rags  to  a  good  supper,  while 
Mrs.  Hawkins  told  him  all  the  news  which  she  could  of  his 
mother,  whom  Adrian  Gilbert  had  seen  a  few  months  before  in 
London ;  and  then  went  on,  naturally  enough,  to  the  Bideford 
news. 

"  And  by  the  by,  Captain  Leigh,  I've  sad  news  for  you  from 
your  place ;  and  I  had  it  from  one  who  was  there  at  the  time. 
You  must  know  a  Spanish  captain,  a  prisoner — 

"  What,  the  one  I  sent  home  from  Smerwick  T' 

"  You  sent  1  Mercy  on  us !  Then,  perhaps,  you've 
heard " 

"  How  can  I  have  heard  1     What  V 

"  That  he's  gone  off,  the  villain  V 

"Without  paying  his  ransom  1" 


266  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

"  I  can't  say  that ;  but  there's  a  poor  innocent  young  maid 
gone  off  with  him,  one  Salterne's  daughter — the  Popish 
serpent !" 

"Rose  Salterne,  the  mayor's  daughter,  the  Rose  of  Tor- 
ridge  ! " 

"  That's  her.     Bless  your  dear  soul,  what  ails  you?" 

Amyas  had  dropped  back  in  his  seat  as  if  he  had  been  shot ; 
but  he  recovered  himself  before  kind  Mrs.  Hawkins  could  rush 
to  the  cupboard  for  cordials. 

"  You'll  forgive  me,  madam ;  but  I'm  weak  from  the  sea ; 
and  your  good  ale  has  turned  me  a  bit  dizzy,  I  think." 

"Ay,  yes,  'tis  too,  too  heavy,  till  you've  been  on  shore 
a  while.  Try  the  aqua  vitse ;  my  Captain  John  has  it  right 
good ;  and  a  bit  too  fond  of  it  too,  poor  dear  soul,  between 
whiles,  Heaven  forgive  him  !" 

So  she  poured  some  strong  brandy  and  water  down  Amyas's 
throat,  in  spite  of  his  refusals,  and  sent  him  to  bed,  but  not  to 
sleep;  and  after  a  night  of  tossing,  he  started  for  Bideford, 
having  obtained  the  means  for  so  doing  from  Mrs.  Hawkins. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HOW  SALVATION  YEO  SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS. 

' '  Ignorance  and  evil,  even  in  full  flight,  deal  terrible  back-handed 
strokes  at  their  pursuers." — HELPS. 

Now  I  am  sorry  to  say,  for  the  honour  of  my  country,  that  it 
was  by  no  means  a  safe  thing  in  those  days  to  travel  from  Ply- 
mouth to  the  north  of  Devon ;  because,  to  get  to  your  journey's 
end,  unless  you  were  minded  to  make  a  circuit  of  many  miles, 
you  must  needs  pass  through  the  territory  of  a  foreign  and  hostile 
potentate,  who  had  many  times  ravaged  the  dominions,  and 
defeated  the  forces  of  her  Majesty  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  was 
named  (behind  his  back  at  least)  the  King  of  the  Gubbings. 
"  So  now  I  dare  call  them,"  says  Fuller,  "  secured  by  distance, 
which  one  of  more  valour  durst  not  do  to  their  face,  for  fear 
their  fury  fall  upon  him.  Yet  hitherto  have  I  met  with  none 
who  could  render  a  reason  of  their  name.  We  call  the  shav- 
ings of  fish  (which  are  little  worth)  gubbings ;  and  sure  it  is 
that  they  are  sensible  that  the  word  importeth  shame  and 
disgrace. 

"  As  for  the  suggestion  of  my  worthy  and  learned  friend, 


CHAP.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  267 

Mr.  Joseph  Maynard,  that  such  as  did  '  inhabitare  monies 
gibberosos,'  were  called  Gubbings,  such  will  smile  at  the  in- 
genuity who  dissent  from  the  truth  of  the  etymology. 

"  I  have  read  of  an  England  beyond  Wales,  but  the  Gub- 
bings land  is  a  Scythia  within  England,  and  they  pure  heathens 
therein.  It  lieth  nigh  Brent.  For  in  the  edge  of  Dartmoor  it 
is  reported  that,  some  two  hundred  years  since,  two  bad  women, 
being  with  child,  fled  thither  to  hide  themselves ;  to  whom 
certain  lewd  fellows  resorted,  and  this  was  their  first  original. 
They  are  a  peculiar  of  their  own  making,  exempt  from  bishop, 
archdeacon,  and  all  authority,  either  ecclesiastical  or  civU. 
They  live  in  cots  (rather  holes  than  houses)  like  swine,  having 
all  in  common,  multiplied  without  marriage  into  many  hun- 
dreds. Their  language  is  the  dross  of  the  dregs  of  the  vulgar 
Devonian ;  and  the  more  learned  a  man  is,  the  worse  he  can 
understand  them.  During  our  civil  wars  no  soldiers  were 
quartered  upon  them,  for  fear  of  being  quartered  amongst  them. 
Their  wealth  consisteth  in  other  men's  goods;  they  live  by 
stealing  the  sheep  on  the  moors ;  and  vain  is  it  for  any  to 
search  their  houses,  being  a  work  beneath  the  pains  of  any 
sheriff,  and  above  the  power  of  any  constable.  Such  is  their 
fleetness,  they  will  outrun  many  horses ;  vivaciousness,  they 
outlive  most  men ;  living  in  an  ignorance  of  luxury,  the  ex- 
tinguisher of  life.  They  hold  together  like  bees ;  offend  one, 
and  all  will  revenge  his  quarrel. 

"  But  now  I  am  informed  that  they  begin  to  be  civilised, 
and  tender  their  children  to  baptism,  and  return  to  be  men, 
yea,  Christians  again.  I  hope  no  civil  people  amongst  us  will 
turn  barbarians,  now  these  barbarians  begin  to  be  civilised." * 

With  which  quip  against  the  Anabaptists  of  his  day,  Fuller 
ends  his  story ;  and  I  leave  him  to  set  forth  how  Amyas,  in 
fear  of  these  same  Scythians  and  heathens,  rode  out  of  Ply- 
mouth on  a  right  good  horse,  in  his  full  suit  of  armour,  carrying 
lance  and  sword,  and  over  and  above  two  great  dags,  or  horse- 
pistols  ;  and  behind  him  Salvation  Yeo,  and  five  or  six  north 
Devon  men  (who  had  served  with  him  in  Ireland,  and  were 
returning  on  furlough),  clad  in  head-pieces  and  quilted  jerkins, 
each  man  with  his  pike  and  sword,  and  Yeo  with  arquebuse 
and  match,  while  two  sumpter  ponies  carried  the  baggage  of 
this  formidable  troop. 

They  pushed  on  as  fast  as  they  could,  through  Tavistock, 
to  reach  before  nightfall  Lydford,  where  they  meant  to  sleep  ; 
1  Fuller,  p.  398. 


268  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XIV. 

but  what  with  buying  the  horses,  and  other  delays,  they  had 
not  been  able  to  start  before  noon ;  and  night  fell  just  as  they 
reached  the  frontiers  of  the  enemy's  country.  A  dreary  place 
enough  it  was,  by  the  wild  glare  of  sunset.  A  high  table- 
land of  heath,  banked  on  the  right  by  the  crags  and  hills  of 
Dartmoor,  and  sloping  away  to  the  south  and  west  toward  the 
foot  of  the  great  cone  of  Brent-Tor,  which  towered  up  like  an 
extinct  volcano  (as  some  say  that  it  really  is),  crowned  with 
the  tiny  church,  the  votive  offering  of  some  Plymouth  merchant 
of  old  times,  who  vowed  in  sore  distress  to  build  a  church  to 
the  Blessed  Virgin  on  the  first  point  of  English  land  which  he 
should  see.  Far  away,  down  those  waste  slopes,  they  could 
see  the  tiny  threads  of  blue  smoke  rising  from  the  dens  of  the 
Gubbings ;  and  more  than  once  they  called  a  halt,  to  examine 
whether  distant  furze-bushes  and  ponies  might  not  be  the 
patrols  of  an  advancing  army.  It  is  all  very  well  to  laugh  at 
it  now,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  but  it  was  no  laughing 
matter  then ;  as  they  found  before  they  had  gone  two  miles 
farther. 

On  the  middle  of  the  down  stood  a  wayside  inn ;  a  desolate 
and  villanous- looking  lump  of  lichen -spotted  granite,  with 
windows  paper -patched,  and  rotting  thatch  kept  down  by 
stones  and  straw-banks  ;  and  at  the  back  a  rambling  court- 
ledge  of  barns  and  walls,  around  which  pigs  and  barefoot 
children  grunted  in  loving  communion  of  dirt.  At  the  door, 
rapt  apparently  in  the  contemplation  of  the  mountain  peaks 
which  glowed  rich  orange  in  the  last  lingering  sun-rays,  but 
really  watching  which  way  the  sheep  on  the  moor  were  taking, 
stood  the  innkeeper,  a  brawny,  sodden- visaged,  blear-eyed  six 
feet  of  brutishness,  holding  up  his  hose  with  one  hand,  for 
want  of  points,  and  clawing  with  the  other  his  elf-locks,  on 
which  a  fair  sprinkling  of  feathers  might  denote :  first,  that  he 
was  just  out  of  bed,  having  been  out  sheep-stealing  all  the 
night  before  ;  and  secondly,  that  by  natural  genius  he  had 
anticipated  the  opinion  of  that  great  apostle  of  sluttishness, 
Fridericus  Dedekind,  and  his  faithful  disciple  Dekker,  which  last 
speaks  thus  to  all  gulls  and  grobians : — "  Consider  that  as  those 
trees  of  cobweb  lawn,  woven  by  spinners  in  the  fresh  May 
mornings,  do  dress  the  curled  heads  of  the  mountains,  and 
adorn  the  swelling  bosoms  of  the  valleys ;  or  as  those  snowy 
fleeces,  which  the  naked  briar  steals  from  the  innocent  sheep  to 
make  himself  a  warm  winter  livery,  are,  to  either  of  them  both, 
an  excellent  ornament ;  so  make  thou  account,  that  to  have 


CHAP.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  269 

feathers  sticking  here  and  there  on  thy  head  will  embellish 
thee,  and  set  thy  crown  out  rarely.  None  dare  upbraid  thee, 
that  like  a  beggar  thou  hast  lain  on  straw,  or  like  a  travelling 
pedlar  upon  musty  flocks ;  for  those  feathers  will  rise  up  as 
witnesses  to  choke  him  that  says  so,  and  to  prove  thy  bed  to 
have  been  of  the  softest  down."  Even  so  did  those  feathers 
bear  witness  that  the  possessor  of  Rogues'  Harbour  Inn,  on 
Brent-Tor  Down,  whatever  else  he  lacked,  lacked  not  geese 
enough  to  keep  him  in  soft  lying. 

Presently  he  spies  Amyas  and  his  party  coming  slowly  over 
the  hill,  pricks  up  his  ears,  and  counts  them ;  sees  Amyas's 
armour ;  shakes  his  head  and  grunts ;  and  then,  being  a  man 
of  few  words,  utters  a  sleepy  howl — 

"  Mirooi ! — Pushing  pooale  !" 

A  strapping  lass — whose  only  covering  (for  country  women 
at  work  in  those  days  dispensed  with  the  ornament  of  a  gown) 
is  a  green  bodice  and  red  petticoat,  neither  of  them  over  ample 
— brings  out  his  fishing-rod  and  basket,  and  the  man,  having 
tied  up  his  hose  with  some  ends  of  string,  examines  the  footlink. 

"Don  vlies'  gone  !" 

"Maybe,"  says  Mary;  "shouldn't  hav'  left  mun  out  to 
coort.  May  be  old  hen's  ate  mun  off.  I  see  her  chocking 
about  a  while  agone." 

The  host  receives  this  intelligence  with  an  oath,  and  replies 
by  a  violent  blow  at  Mary's  head,  which  she,  accustomed  to 
such  slight  matters,  dodges,  and  then  returns  the  blow  with 
good  effect  on  the  shock  head. 

Whereon  mine  host,  equally  accustomed  to  such  slight 
matters,  quietly  shambles  off,  howling  as  he  departs — 

"Tellpatrico!" 

Mary  runs  in,  combs  her  hair,  slips  a  pair  of  stockings  and 
her  best  gown  over  her  dirt,  and  awaits  the  coming  guests,  who 
make  a  few  long  faces  at  the  "  mucksy  sort  of  a  place,"  but 
prefer  to  spend  the  night  there  than  to  bivouac  close  to  the 
enemy's  camp. 

So  the  old  hen  who  has  swallowed  the  dun  fly  is  killed, 
plucked,  and  roasted,  and  certain  "  black  Dartmoor  mutton  "  is 
put  on  the  gridiron,  and  being  compelled  to  confess  the  truth 
by  that  fiery  torment,  proclaims  itself  to  all  noses  as  red-deer 
venison.  In  the  meanwhile  Amyas  has  put  his  horse  and  the 
ponies  into  a  shed,  to  which  he  can  find  neither  lock  nor  key, 
and  therefore  returns  grumbling,  not  without  fear  for  his  steed's 
safety.  The  baggage  is  heaped  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  and 


270  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

Amyas  stretches  his  legs  before  a  turf  fire ;  while  Yeo,  who  has 
his  notions  about  the  place,  posts  himself  at  the  door,  and  the 
men  are  seized  with  a  desire  to  superintend  the  cooking,  prob- 
ably to  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  Mary  is  cook. 

Presently  Yeo  comes  in  again. 

"There's  a  gentleman  just  coming  up,  sir,  all  alone." 

"  Ask  him  to  make  one  of  our  party,  then,  with  my  compli- 
ments." Yeo  goes  out,  and  returns  in  five  minutes. 

"  Please,  sir,  he's  gone  in  back  ways,  by  the  court." 

"Well,  he  has  an  odd  taste,  if  he  makes  himself  at  home 
here." 

Out  goes  Yeo  again,  and  comes  back  once  more  after  five 
minutes,  in  high  excitement. 

"  Come  out,  sir ;  for  goodness'  sake  come  out.  I've  got 
him.  Safe  as  a  rat  in  a  trap,  I  have  ! " 

"Who?" 

"  A  Jesuit,  sir." 

"Nonsense,  man  !" 

"I  tell  you  truth,  sir.  I  went  round  the  house,  for  I 
didn't  like  the  looks  of  him  as  he  came  up.  I  knew  he  was 
one  of  them  villains  the  minute  he  came  up,  by  the  way  he 
turned  in  his  toes,  and  put  down  his  feet  so  still  and  careful, 
like  as  if  he  was  afraid  of  offending  God  at  every  step.  So  I 
just  put  my  eye  between  the  wall  and  the  dern  of  the  gate,  and 
I  saw  him  come  up  to  the  back  door  and  knock,  and  call 
'  Mary  ! '  quite  still,  like  any  Jesuit ;  and  the  wench  flies  out  to 
him  ready  to  eat  him  ;  and  '  Go  away,'  I  heard  her  say,  '  there's 
a  dear  man ;'  and  then  something  about  a  '  queer  cuffin '  (that's 
a  justice  in  these  canters'  thieves'  Latin) ;  and  with  that  he 
takes  out  a  somewhat — I'll  swear  it  was  one  of  those  Popish 
Agnuses — and  gives  it  her ;  and  she  kisses  it,  and  crosses  her- 
self, and  asks  him  if  that's  the  right  way,  and  then  puts  it  into 
her  bosom,  and  he  says,  '  Bless  you,  my  daughter ;'  and  then  I 
was  sure  of  the  dog  :  and  he  slips  quite  still  to  the  stable,  and 
peeps  in,  and  when  he  sees  no  one  there,  in  he  goes,  and  out  I 
go,  and  shut  to  the  door,  and  back  a  cart  that  was  there  up 
against  it,  and  call  out  one  of  the  men  to  watch  the  stable,  and 
the  girl's  crying  like  mad." 

"  What  a  fool's  trick,  man  !  How  do  you  know  that  he  is 
not  some  honest  gentleman,  after  all?" 

"  Fool  or  none,  sir ;  honest  gentlemen  don't  give  maidens 
Agnuses.  I've  put  him  in ;  and  if  you  want  him  let  out  again, 
you  must  come  and  do  it  yourself,  for  my  conscience  is  against 


CHAP.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  271 

it,  sir.  If  the  Lord's  enemies  are  delivered  into  my  hand,  I'm 
answerable,  sir,"  went  on  Yeo  as  Amyas  hurried  out  with  him. 
"  'Tis  written,  '  If  any  let  one  of  them  go,  his  life  shall  be  for 
the  life  of  him.'" 

So  Amyas  ran  out,  pulled  back  the  cart  grumbling,  opened 
the  door,  and  began  a  string  of  apologies  to — his  cousin  Eustace. 

Yes,  here  he  was,  with  such  a  countenance,  half  foolish, 
half  venomous,  as  Reynard  wears  when  the  last  spadeful  of 
earth  is  thrown  back,  and  he  is  revealed  sitting  disconsolately 
on  his  tail  within  a  yard  of  the  terriers'  noses. 

Neither  cousin  spoke  for  a  minute  or  two.    At  last  Amyas — 

"Well,  cousin  hide-and-seek,  how  long  have  you  added 
horse-stealing  to  your  other  trades?" 

"  My  dear  Amyas,"  said  Eustace  very  meekly,  "  I  may  surely 
go  into  an  inn  stable  without  intending  to  steal  what  is  in  it." 

"Of  course,  old  fellow,"  said  Amyas,  mollified,  "I  was 
only  in  jest.  But  what  brings  you  here  ?  Not  prudence, 
certainly." 

"I  am  bound  to  know  no  prudence  save  for  the  Lord's 
work." 

"That's  giving  away  Agnus  Deis,  and  deceiving  poor 
heathen  wenches,  I  suppose,"  said  Yeo. 

Eustace  answered  pretty  roundly — 

"  Heathens  1  Yes,  truly ;  you  Protestants  leave  these  poor 
wretches  heathens,  and  then  insult  and  persecute  those  who, 
with  a  devotion  unknown  to  you,  labour  at  the  danger  of  their 
lives  to  make  them  Christians.  Mr.  Amyas  Leigh,  you  can 
give  me  up  to  be  hanged  at  Exeter,  if  it  shall  so  please  you  to 
disgrace  your  own  family ;  but  from  this  spot  neither  you,  no, 
nor  all  the  myrmidons  of  your  queen,  shall  drive  me,  while 
there  is  a  soul  here  left  unsaved." 

"Come  out  of  the  stable,  at  least,"  said  Amyas;  "you 
don't  want  to  make  the  horses  Papists,  as  well  as  the  asses,  do 
you  1  Come  out,  man,  and  go  to  the  devil  your  own  way.  I 
shan't  inform  against  you ;  and  Yeo  here  will  hold  his  tongue 
if  I  tell  him,  I  know." 

"  It  goes  sorely  against  my  conscience,  sir ;  but  being  that 
he  is  your  cousin,  of  course — 

"  Of  course ;  and  now  come  in  and  eat  with  me  ;  supper's 
just  ready,  and  bygones  shall  be  bygones,  if  you  will  have  them 
so." 

How  much  forgiveness  Eustace  felt  in  his  heart,  I  know 
not :  but  he  knew,  of  course,  that  he  ought  to  forgive ;  and  to 


272  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

go  in  and  cat  with  Amyas  was  to  perform  an  act  of  forgiveness, 
and  for  the  best  of  motives,  too,  for  by  it  the  cause  of  the 
Church  might  be  furthered ;  and  acts  and  motives  being  correct, 
what  more  was  needed  ?  So  in  he  went ;  and  yet  he  never 
forgot  that  scar  upon  his  cheek ;  and  Amyas  could  not  look 
him  in  the  face  but  Eustace  must  fancy  that  his  eyes  were  on 
the  scar,  and  peep  up  from  under  his  lids  to  see  if  there  was 
any  smile  of  triumph  on  that  honest  visage.  They  talked  away 
over  the  venison,  guardedly  enough  at  first ;  but  as  they  went 
on,  Amyas's  straightforward  kindliness  warmed  poor  Eustace's 
frozen  heart;  and  ere  they  were  aware,  they  found  themselves 
talking  over  old  haunts  and  old  passages  of  their  boyhood — 
uncles,  aunts,  and  cousins ;  and  Eustace,  without  any  sinister 
intention,  asked  Amyas  why  lie  was  going  to  Bideford,  while 
Frank  and  his  mother  were  in  London. 

"  To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  cannot  rest  till  I  have  heard  the 
whole  story  about  poor  Rose  Salterne." 

"What  about  her?"  cried  Eustace. 

"  Do  you  not  know  ?" 

"  How  should  I  know  anything  here  ?  For  heaven's  sake, 
what  has  happened  ?" 

Amyas  told  him,  wondering  at  his  eagerness,  for  he  had 
never  had  the  least  suspicion  of  Eustace's  love. 

Eustace  shrieked  aloud. 

"  Fool,  fool  that  I  have  been  !  Caught  in  my  own  trap  ! 
Villain,  villain  that  he  is !  After  all  he  promised  me  at  Lundy ! " 

And  springing  up,  Eustace  stamped  up  and  down  the  room, 
gnashing  his  teeth,  tossing  his  head  from  side  to  side,  and 
clutching  with  outstretched  hands  at  the  empty  air,  with  the 
horrible  gesture  (Heaven  grant  that  no  reader  has  ever  witnessed 
it !)  of  that  despair  which  still  seeks  blindly  for  the  object 
which  it  knows  is  lost  for  ever. 

Amyas  sat  thunderstruck.  His  first  impulse  was  to  ask, 
"  Lundy  ?  What  knew  you  of  him  ?  What  had  he  or  you  to 
do  at  Lundy  1"  but  pity  conquered  curiosity. 

"  Oh,  Eustace  !     And  you  then  loved  her  too  1" 

11  Don't  speak  to  me !  Loved  her  1  Yes,  sir,  and  had  as 
good  a  right  to  love  her  as  any  one  of  your  precious  brother- 
hood of  the  Rose.  Don't  speak  to  me,  I  say,  or  I  shall  do  you 
a  mischief!" 

So  Eustace  knew  of  the  brotherhood  too!  Amyas  longed 
to  ask  him  how;  but  what  use  in  that?  If  he  knew  it,  he 
knew  it ;  and  what  harm  ]  So  he  only  answered — 


cilAl'.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  273 

"  My  good  cousin,  why  be  wroth  with  me  1  If  you  really 
love  her,  now  is  the  time  to  take  counsel  with  me  how  best  we 
shall— 

Eustace  did  not  let  him  finish  his  sentence.  Conscious  that 
he  had  betrayed  himself  upon  more  points  than  one,  he  stopped 
short  in  his  walk,  suddenly  collected  himself  by  one  great  effort, 
and  eyed  Amyas  from  underneath  his  brows  with  the  old  down 
look. 

"  How  best  we  shall  do  what,  my  valiant  cousin  ?"  said  he 
in  a  meaning  and  half-scornful  voice.  "  What  does  your  most 
chivalrous  Brotherhood  of  the  Rose  purpose  in  such  a  case  1" 

Amyas,  a  little  nettled,  stood  on  his  guard  in  return,  and 
answered  bluntly — 

"  What  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Rose  will  do,  I  can't  yet 
say.  What  it  ought  to  do,  I  have  a  pretty  sure  guess." 

"  So  have  I.  To  hunt  her  down  as  you  would  an  outlaw, 
because  forsooth  she  has  dared  to  love  a  Catholic ;  to  murder 
her  lover  in  her  arms,  and  drag  her  home  again  stained  with 
his  blood,  to  be  forced  by  threats  and  persecution  to  renounce 
that  Church  into  whose  maternal  bosom  she  has  doubtless  long 
since  found  rest  and  holiness  ! " 

"  If  she  has  found  holiness,  it  matters  little  to  me  where 
she  has  found  it,  Master  Eustace  :  but  that  is  the  very  point 
that  I  should  be  glad  to  know  for  certain." 

"And  you  will  go  and  discover  for  yourself?" 

"  Have  you  no  wish  to  discover  it  also  1" 

"  And  if  I  had,  what  would  that  be  to  you  1" 

"  Only,"  said  Amyas,  trying  hard  to  keep  his  temper,  "that, 
if  we  had  the  same  purpose,  we  might  sail  in  the  same  ship." 

"  You  intend  to  sail,  then  ?" 

"  I  mean  simply,  that  we  might  work  together." 

"  Our  paths  lie  on  very  different  roads,  sir  !" 

"  I  am  afraid  you  never  spoke  a  truer  word,  sir.  In  the 
-meanwhile,  ere  we  part,  be  so  kind  as  to  tell  me  what  you 
meant  by  saying  that  you  had  met  this  Spaniard  at  Lundy?" 

"  I  shall  refuse  to  answer  that." 

"  You  will  please  to  recollect,  Eustace,  that  however  good 
friends  we  have  been  for  the  last  half-hour,  you  are  in  my  power. 
I  have  a  right  to  know  the  bottom  of  this  matter;  and,  by 
Heaven,  I  will  know  it." 

"  In  your  power  1  See  that  you  are  not  in  mine !  Remem- 
ber, sir,  that  you  are  within  a — within  a  few  miles,  at  least,  of 
those  who  will  obey  me,  their  Catholic  benefactor :  but  who  owe 

T 


274  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

no  allegiance  to  those  Protestant  authorities  who  have  left  them 
to  the  lot  of  the  beasts  which  perish." 

Amyas  was  very  angry.  He  wanted  but  little  more  to  make 
him  catch  Eustace  by  the  shoulders,  shake  the  life  out  of  him, 
and  deliver  him  into  the  tender  guardianship  of  Yeo ;  but  he 
knew  that  to  take  him  at  all  was  to  bring  certain  death  on  him, 
and  disgrace  on  the  family ;  and  remembering  Frank's  conduct 
on  that  memorable  night  at  Clovelly,  he  kept  himself  down. 

"Take  me,"  said  Eustace,  "if  you  will,  sir.  You,  who 
complain  of  us  that  we  keep  no  faith  with  heretics,  will  perhaps 
recollect  that  you  asked  me  into  this  room  as  your  guest :  and 
that  in  your  good  faith  I  trusted  when  I  entered  it." 

The  argument  was. a  worthless  one  in  law;  for  Eustace  had 
been  a  prisoner  before  he  was  a  guest,  and  Amyas  was  guilty  of 
something  very  like  misprision  of  treason  in  not  handing  him 
over  to  the  nearest  justice.  However,  all  he  did  was,  to  go  to 
the  door,  open  it,  and  bowing  to  his  cousin,  bid  him  walk  out 
and  go  to  the  devil,  since  he  seemed  to  have  set  his  mind  on 
ending  his  days  in  the  company  of  that  personage. 

Whereon  Eustace  vanished. 

"  Pooh  !"  said  Amyas  to  himself:  "  I  can  find  out  enough, 
and  too  much,  I  fear,  without  the  help  of  such  crooked  vermin. 
I  must  see  Gary ;  I  must  see  Salterne ;  and  I  suppose,  if  I  am 
ready  to  do  my  duty,  I  shall  learn  somehow  what  it  is.  Now 
to  sleep;  to-morrow  up  and  away  to  what  God  sends." 

"  Come  in  hither,  men,"  shouted  he  down  the  passage,  "and 
sleep  here.  Haven't  you  had  enough  of  this  villainous  sour 
cider  V 

The  men  came  in  yawning,  and  settled  themselves  to  sleep 
on  the  floor. 

"'Where's  Yeo  V 

No  one  knew ;  he  had  gone  out  to  say  his  prayers,  and  had 
not  returned. 

"  Never  mind,"  said  Amyas,  who  suspected  some  plot  on  the 
old  man's  part.  "  He'll  take  care  of  himself,  I'll  warrant  him." 

"  No  fear  of  that,  sir;"  and  the  four  tars  were  soon  snoring 
in  concert  round  the  fire,  while  Amyas  laid  himself  on  the  settle, 
with  his  saddle  for  a  pillow. 

It  was  about  midnight,  when  Amyas  leaped  to  his  feet,  or 
rather  fell  upon  his  back,  upsetting  saddle,  settle,  and  finally, 
table,  under  the  notion  that  ten  thousand  flying  dragons  were 
bursting  in  the  window  close  to  his  ear,  with  howls  most  fierce 


CHAI>.  XIV.]         SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  CUBBINGS.  275 

and  fell.  The  flying  dragons  past,  however,  being  only  a  flock 
of  terror-stricken  geese,  which  flew  flapping  and  screaming  round 
the  corner  of  the  house  :  but  the  noise  which  had  startled  them 
did  not  pass ;  and  another  minute  made  it  evident  that  a  sharp 
fight  was  going  on  in  the  courtyard,  and  that  Yeo  was  hallooing 
lustily  for  help. 

Out  turned  the  men,  sword  in  hand,  burst  the  back  door 
open,  stumbling  over  pails  and  pitchers,  and  into  the  courtyard, 
where  Yeo,  his  back  against  the  stable -door,  was  holding  his 
own  manfully  with  sword  and  buckler  against  a  dozen  men. 

Dire  and  manifold  was  the  screaming ;  geese  screamed, 
chickens  screamed,  pigs  screamed,  donkeys  screamed,  Mary 
screamed  from  an  upper  window;  and  to  complete  the  chorus,  a 
Hock  of  plovers,  attracted  by  the  noise,  wheeled  round  and  round 
overhead,  and  added  their  'screams  also  to  that  Dutch  concert. 

The  screaming  went  on,  but  the  fight  ceased  ;  for,  as  Amyas 
rushed  into  the  yard,  the  whole  party  of  ruffians  took  to  their 
heels,  and  vanished  over  a  low  hedge  at  the  other  end  of  the  yard. 

"  Are  you  hurt,  Yeo  V 

"  Not  a  scratch,  thank  Heaven !  But  I've  got  two  of  them, 
the  ringleaders,  I  have.  One  of  them's  against  the  wall.  Your 
horse  did  for  t'other." 

The  wounded  man  was  lifted  up ;  a  huge  ruifian,  nearly  as 
big  as  Amyas  himself.  Yeo's  sword  had  passed  through  his 
body.  He  groaned  and  choked  for  breath. 

"  Carry  him  indoors.     Where  is  the  other1?" 

"  Dead  as  a  herring,  in  the  straw.  Have  a  care,  men,  have 
a  care  how  you  go  in  !  the  horses  are  near  mad  !" 

However,  the  man  was  brought  out  after  a  while.  With 
him  all  was  over.  They  could  feel  neither  pulse  nor  breath. 

"  Carry  him  in  too,  poor  wretch.  And  now,  Yeo,  what  is 
the  meaning  of  all  this  V 

Yeo's  story  was  soon  told.  He  could  not  get  out  of  his 
Puritan  head  the  notion  (quite  unfounded,  of  course)  that 
Eustace  had  meant  to  steal  the  horses.  He  had  seen  the  inn- 
keeper sneak  off  at  their  approach ;  and  expecting  some  night- 
attack,  he  had  taken  up  his  lodging  for  the  night  in  the  stable. 

As  he  expected,  an  attempt  was  made.  The  door  was 
opened  (how,  he  could  not  guess,  for  he  had  fastened  it  inside), 
and  two  follows  came  in,  and  began  to  loose  the  beasts.  Yeo's 
account  was,  that  lie  seized  the  big  fellow,  who  drew  a  knife  on 
him,  and  broke  loose  ;  the  horses,  terrified  at  the  scuffle,  kicked 
right  and  left ;  one  man  fell,  and  the  other  ran  out,  calling  for 


276  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XIV. 

help,  with  Yeo  at  his  heels  ;  "  Whereon,"  said  Yeu,  "  seeing  a 
dozen  more  on  me  with  clubs  and  bows,  I  thought  best  to 
shorten  the  number  while  I  could,  ran  the  rascal  through,  and 
stood  on  my  ward ;  and  only  just  in  time  I  was,  what's  more  ; 
there's  two  arrows  in  the  house  wall,  and  two  or  three  more  in 
my  buckler,  which  I  caught  up  as  I  went  out,  for  I  had  hung 
it  close  by  the  door,  you  see,  sir,  to  be  all  ready  in  case,"  said 
the  cunning  old  Philistine  -  slayer,  as  they  went  in  after  the 
wounded  man. 

But  hardly  had  they  stumbled  through  the  low  doorway 
into  the  back-kitchen  when  a  fresh  hubbub  arose  inside — more 
shouts  for  help.  Amyas  ran  forward  breaking  his  head  against 
the  doorway,  and  beheld,  as  soon  as  he  could  see  for  the  flashes 
in  his  eyes,  an  old  acquaintance,  held  on  each  side  by  a  sturdy 
sailor. 

With  one  arm  in  the  sleeve  of  his  doublet,  and  the  other  in 
a  not  over  spotless  shirt ;  holding  up  his  hose  with  one  hand, 
and  with  the  other  a  candle,  whereby  he  had  lighted  himself  to 
his  own  confusion;  foaming  with  rage,  stood  Mr.  Evan  Morgans, 
alias  Father  Parsons,  looking,  between  his  confused  habiliments 
and  his  fiery  visage  (as  Yeo  told  him  to  his  face),  "  the  very 
moral  of  a  half-plucked  turkey-cock."  And  behind  him,  dressed, 
stood  Eustace  Leigh. 

"  We  found  the  maid  letting  these  here  two  out  by  the 
front  door,"  said  one  of  the  captors. 

"  Well,  Mr.  Parsons,"  said  Amyas ;  "  and  what  are  you 
about  here  1  A  pretty  nest  of  thieves  and  Jesuits  we  seem  to 
have  routed  out  this  evening." 

"  About  my  calling,  sir,"  said  Parsons  stoutly.  "  By 
your  leave,  I  shall  prepare  this  my  wounded  lamb  for  that 
account  to  which  your  man's  cruelty  has  untimely  sent  him." 

The  wounded  man,  who  lay  upon  the  floor,  heard  Parsons' 
voice,  and  moaned  for  the  "  Patrico." 

"You  see,  sir,"  said  he  pompously,  "  the  sheep  know  their 
shepherd's  voice." 

"  The  wolves  you  mean,  you  hypocritical  scoundrel ! "  said 
Amyas,  who  could  not  contain  his  disgust.  "  Let  the  fellow 
truss  up  his  points,  lads,  and  do  his  work.  After  all,  the  man 
is  dying." 

"  The  requisite  matters,  sir,  are  not  at  hand,"  said  Parsons, 
unabashed. 

"  Eustace,  go  and  fetch  his  matters  for  him  ;  you  seem  to 
be  in  all  his  plots." 


.  xiv.]         SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  CUBBINGS.  277 

Eustace  went  silently  and  sullenly. 

"What's  that  fresh  noise  at  the  back,  now?" 

"  The  maid,  sir,  a  wailing  over  her  uncle ;  the  fellow  that 
we  saw  sneak  away  when  we  came  up.  It  was  him  the  horse 
killed." 

It  was  true.  The  wretched  host  had  slipped  off  on  their 
approach,  simply  to  call  the  neighbouring  outlaws  to  the  spoil ; 
and  he  had  been  filled  with  the  fruit  of  his  own  devices. 

"  His  blood  be  on  his  own  head,"  said  Amyas. 

"  I  question,  sir,"  said  Yeo  in  a  low  voice,  "  whether 
some  of  it  will  not  be  on  the  heads  of  those  proud  prelates 
who  go  clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  instead  of  going  forth 
to  convert  such  as  he,  and  then  wonder  how  these  Jesuits  get 
hold  of  them.  If  they  give  place  to  the  devil  in  their  sheep- 
folds,  sure  he'll  come  in  and  lodge  there.  Look,  sir,  there's  a 
sight  in  a  gospel  land  !" 

And,  indeed,  the  sight  was  curious  enough.  For  Parsons 
was  kneeling  by  the  side  of  the  dying  man,  listening  earnestly 
to  the  confession  which  the  man  sobbed  out  in  his  gibberish, 
between  the  spasms  of  his  wounded  chest.  Now  and  then 
Parsons  shook  his  head  ;  and  when  Eustace  returned  with  the 
holy  wafer,  and  the  oil  for  extreme  unction,  he  asked  him,  in  a 
low  voice,  "Ballard,  interpret  for  me." 

And  Eustace  knelt  down  on  the  other  side  of  the  sufferer, 
and  interpreted  his  thieves'  dialect  into  Latin  ;  and  the  dying 
man  held  a  hand  of  each,  and  turned  first  to  one  and  then  to 
the  other  stupid  eyes, — not  without  affection,  though,  and 
gratitude. 

"  I  can't  stand  this  mummery  any  longer,"  said  Yeo. 
"  Here's  a  soul  perishing  before  my  eyes,  and  it's  on  my  con- 
science to  speak  a  word  in  season." 

"  Silence ! "  whispered  Amyas,  holding  him  back  by  the 
arm ;  "  he  knows  them,  and  he  don't  know  you  ;  they  are  the 
first  who  ever  spoke  to  him  as  if  he  had  a  soul  to  be  saved, 
and  first  come,  first  served ;  you  can  do  no  good.  See,  the 
man's  face  is  brightening  already." 

"  But,  sir,  'tis  a  false  peace." 

"  At  all  events  he  is  confessing  his  sins,  Yeo  ;  and  if  that's 
not  good  for  him,  and  you,  and  me,  what  is  1 " 

"  Yea,  Amen  !  sir ;  but  this  is  not  to  the  right  person." 

"  How  do  you  know  his  words  will  not  go  to  the  right 
person  after  all,  though  he  may  not  send  them  there?  By 
Heaven  !  the  man  is  dead  !" 


278  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

It  was  so.  The  dark  catalogue  of  brutal  deeds  had  been 
gasped  out ;  but  ere  the  words  of  absolution  could  follow,  the 
head  had  fallen  back,  and  all  was  over. 

"Confession  in  extremis  is  sufficient,"  said  Parsons  to 
Eustace  ("  Ballard,"  as  Parsons  called  him,  to  Amyas's  sur- 
prise), as  he  rose.  "As  for  the  rest,  the  intention  will  be 
accepted  instead  of  the  act." 

"  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  his  soul !"  said  Eustace. 

"His  soul  is  lost  before  our  very  eyes,"  said  Yeo. 

"  Mind  your  own  business,"  said  Amyas. 

"  Humph  ;  but  I'll  tell  you,  sir,  what  our  business  is,  if 
you'll  step  aside,  with  me.  I  find  that  poor  fellow  that  lies 
dead  is  none  other  than  the  leader  of  the  Gubbings  ;  the  king 
of  them,  as  they  dare  to  call  him." 

"  Well,  what  of  that  T 

"Mark  my  words,  sir,  if  we  have  not  a  hundred  stout 
rogues  upon  us  before  two  hours  are  out ;  forgive  us  they  never 
will ;  and  if  we  get  off  with  our  lives,  which  I  don't  much 
expect,  we  shall  leave  our  horses  behind ;  for  we  can  hold  the 
house,  sir.  well  enough  till  morning  :  but  the  courtyard  we 
can't,  that's  certain  !" 

"  We  had  better  march  at  once,  then." 

"  Think,  sir  ;  if  they  catch  us  up — as  they  are  sure  to  do, 
knowing  the  country  better  than  we — how  will  our  shot  stand 
their  arrows  V 

"True,  old  wisdom;  we  must  keep  the  road;  and  we 
must  keep  together ;  and  so  be  a  mark  for  them,  while  they 
will  be  behind  every  rock  and  bank  ;  and  two  or  three  flights 
of  arrows  will  do  our  business  for  us.  Humph  !  stay,  I  have  a 
plan."  And  stepping  forward  he  spoke — 

"  Eustace,  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  go  back  to  your  lambs; 
and  tell  them,  that  if  they  meddle  with  us  cruel  wolves  again 
to-night,  we  are  ready  and  willing  to  fight  to  the  death,  and 
have  plenty  of  shot  and  powder  at  their  service.  Father 
Parsons,  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  accompany  us  ;  it  is  but 
fitting  that  the  shepherd  should  be  hostage  for  his  sheep." 

"  If  you  carry  me  off  this  spot,  sir,  you  carry  my  corpse 
only,"  said  Parsons.  "  T  may  as  well  die  here  as  be  hanged 
elsewhere,  like  my  martyred  brother  Campian." 

"  If  you  take  him,  you  must  take  me  too,"  said  Eustace. 

"  What  if  we  won't  ?" 

"  How  will  you  gain  by  that  1  you  can  only  leave  me  here. 
You  cannot  make  me  go  to  the  Gubbings,  if  I  do  not  choose." 


CHAP.  XIV.]         SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  CUBBINGS.  279 

Amyas  uttered  sotto  voce  an  anathema  on  Jesuits,  Gub- 
bings,  and  things  in  general.  He  was  in  a  great  hurry  to  get 
to  Bideford,  and  he  feared  that  this  business  would  delay  him, 
as  it  was,  a  day  or  two.  He  wanted  to  hang  Parsons  :  he  did 
not  want  to  hang  Eustace ;  and  Eustace,  he  knew,  was  well 
aware  of  that  latter  fact,  and  played  his  game  accordingly  :  but 
time  ran  on,  and  he  had  to  answer  sulkily  enough — 

"  Well  then ;  if  you,  Eustace,  will  go  and  give  my  message 
to  your  converts,  I  will  promise  to  set  Mr.  Parsons  free  again 
before  we  come  to  Lydford  town  ;  and  I  advise  you,  if  you  have 
any  regard  for  his  life,  to  see  that  your  eloquence  be  persuasive 
enough ;  for  as  sure  as  I  am  an  Englishman,  and  he  none,  if 
the  Gubbings  attack  us,  the  first  bullet  that  I  shall  fire  at  them 
will  have  gone  through  his  scoundrelly  brains." 

Parsons  still  kicked. 

"  Very  well,  then,  my  merry  men  all.  Tie  this  gentleman's 
hands  behind  his  back,  get  the  horses  out,  and  we'll  right  away 
up  into  Dartmoor,  find  a  good  high  tor,  stand  our  ground  there 
till  morning,  and  then  carry  him  into  Okehampton  to  the  near- 
est justice.  If  he  chooses  to  delay  me  in  my  journey,  it  is  fair 
that  I  should  make  him  pay  for  it." 

Whereon  Parsons  gave  in,  and  being  fast  tied  by  his  arm 
to  Amyas's  saddle,  trudged  alongside  his  horse  for  several  weary 
miles,  while  Yeo  walked  by  his  side,  like  a  friar  by  a  condemned 
criminal ;  and  in  order  to  keep  up  his  spirits,  told  him  the 
woeful  end  of  Nicholas  Saunders  the  Legate,  and  how  he  was 
found  starved  to  death  in  a  bog. 

"  And  if  you  wish,  sir,  to  follow  in  his  blessed  steps,  which 
I  heartily  hope  you  will  do,  you  have  only  to  go  over  that  big 
cow-backed  hill  there  on  your  right  hand,  and  down  again  the 
other  side  to  Crawmere  pool,  and  there  you'll  find  as  pretty  a 
bog  to  die  in  as  ever  Jesuit  needed  :  and  your  ghost  may  sit 
there  on  a  grass  tummock,  and  tell  your  beads  without  any  one 
asking  for  you  till  the  day  of  judgment ;  and  much  good  may 
it  do  you  ! ' 

At  which  imagination  Yeo  was  actually  heard,  for  the  first 
and  last  time  in  this  history,  to  laugh  most  heartily. 

His  ho-ho's  had  scarcely  died  away  when  they  saw  shining 
under  the  moon  the  old  Tower  of  Lydford  Castle. 

"  Cast  the  fellow  off  now,"  said  Amyas. 

"Ay,  ay,  sir  !"  and  Yeo  and  Simon  Evans  stopped  behind, 
and  did  not  come  up  for  ten  minutes  after. 

"  What  have  you  been  about  so  long  ?" 


280  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  xiv. 

"  Why,  sir,"  said  Evans,  "  you  see  the  man  had  a  very  fair 
pair  of  hose  on,  and  a  bran-new  kersey  doublet,  very  warm-lined ; 
and  so,  thinking  it  a  pity  good  clothes  should  be  wasted  on 
such  noxious  trade,  we've  just  brought  them  along  with  us." 

"  Spoiling  the  Egyptians,"  said  Yeo  as  comment. 

"  And  what  have  you  done  with  the  man  ?" 

"  Hove  him  over  the  bank,  sir ;  he  pitched  into  a  big  furze- 
bush,  and  for  aught  I  know,  there  he'll  bide." 

"  You  rascal,  have  you  killed  him  ?" 

"  Never  fear,  sir,"  said  Yeo  in  his  cool  fashion.  "  A  Jesuit 
has  as  many  lives  as  a  cat,  and,  I  believe,  rides  broomsticks 
post,  like  a  witch..  He  would  be  at  Lydford  now  before  us,  if 
his  master  Satan  had  any  business  for  him  there." 

Leaving  on  their  left  Lydford  and  its  ill-omened  castle 
(which,  a  century  after,  was  one  of  the  principal  scenes  of  Judge 
Jeffreys's  cruelty),  Amyas  and  his  party  trudged  on  through  the 
mire  toward  Okehampton  till  sunrise ;  and  ere  the  vapours  had 
lifted  from  the  mountain  tops,  they  were  descending  the  long 
slopes  from  Sourton  down,  while  Yestor  and  Amicombe  slept 
steep  and  black  beneath  their  misty  pall ;  and  roaring  far  below 
unseen, 

"  Ockment  leapt  from  crag  and  cloud 
Down  her  cataracts,  laughing  loud." 

The  voice  of  the  stream  recalled  these  words  to  Amyas's 
mind.  The  nymph  of  Torridge  had  spoken  them  upon  the  day 
of  his  triumph.  He  recollected,  too,  his  vexation  on  that  day 
at  not  seeing  Rose  Salterne.  Why,  he  had  never  seen  her  since. 
Never  seen  her  now  for  six  years  and  more  !  Of  her  ripened 
beauty  he  knew  only  by  hearsay;  she  was  still  to  him  the  lovely 
fifteen  years'  girl,  for  whose  sake  he  had  smitten  the  Barnstaple 
draper  over  the  quay.  What  a  chain  of  petty  accidents  had 
kept  them  from  meeting,  though  so  often  within  a  mile  of  each 
other !  "  And  what  a  lucky  one  !"  said  practical  old  Amyas  to 
himself.  "If  I  had  seen  her  as  she  is  now,  I  might  have  loved 
her  as  Frank  does — poor  Frank !  what  will  he  say  ?  What 
does  he  say,  for  he  must  know  it  already  ?  And  what  ought 
I  to  say — to  do  rather,  for  talking  is  no  use  on  this  side  the 
grave,  nor  on  the  other  either,  I  expect !"  And  then  he  asked 
himself  whether  his  old  oath  meant  nothing  or  something; 
whether  it  was  a  mere  tavern  frolic,  or  a  sacred  duty.  And  he 
held,  the  more  that  he  looked  at  it,  that  it  meant  the  latter. 

But  what  could  he  do  1  He  had  nothing  on  earth  but  his 
sword,  so  he  could  not  travel  to  find  her.  After  all,  she  might 


CHAP.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBING8.  281 

not  be  gone  far.  Perhaps  not  gone  at  all  It  might  be  a  mis- 
take, an  exaggerated  scandal.  He  would  hope  so.  And  yet  it 
was  evident  that  there  had  been  some  passages  between  her  and 
Don  Guzman.  Eustace's  mysterious  words  about  the  promise 
at  Lundy  proved  that.  The  villain !  He  had  felt  all  along 
that  he  was  a  villain  :  but  just  the  one  to  win  a  woman's  heart, 
too.  Frank  had  been  away — all  the  Brotherhood  away.  What 
a  fool  he  had  been,  to  turn  the  wolf  loose  into  the  sheepfold  ! 
And  yet  who  would  have  dreamed  of  it  ?  .  .  . 

"At  all  events,"  said  Amyas,  trying  to  comfort  himself,  " I 
need  not  complain.  I  have  lost  nothing.  I  stood  no  more 
chance  of  her  against  Frank  than  I  should  have  stood  against 
the  Don.  So  there  is  no  use  for  me  to  cry  about  the  matter." 
And  he  tried  to  hum  a  tune  concerning  the  general  frailty  of 
women,  but  nevertheless,  like  Sir  Hugh,  felt  that  "  he  had  a 
great  disposition  to  cry." 

He  never  had  expected  to  win  her,  and  yet  it  seemed  bitter 
to  know  that  she  was  lost  to  him  for  ever.  It  was  not  so  easy 
for  a  heart  of  his  make  to  toss  away  the  image  of  a  first  love ; 
and  all  the  less  easy  because  that  image  was  stained  and  ruined. 

"  Curses  on  the  man  who  had  done  that  deed  !  I  will  yet 
have  his  heart's  blood  somehow,  if  I  go  round  the  world  again 
to  find  him.  If  there's  no  law  for  it  on  earth,  there's  law  in 
heaven,  or  I'm  much  mistaken." 

With  which  determination  he  rode  into  the  ugly,  dirty,  and 
stupid  town  of  Okehampton,  with  which  fallen  man  (by  some 
strange  perversity)  has  chosen  to  defile  one  of  the  loveliest  sites 
in  the  pleasant  land  of  Devon.  And  heartily  did  Amyas 
abuse  the  old  town  that  day ;  for  he  was  detained  there,  as  he 
expected,  full  three  hours,  while  the  Justice  Shallow  of  the 
place  was  sent  for  from  his  farm  (whither  he  had  gone  at  sun- 
rise, after  the  early-rising  fashion  of  those  days)  to  take  Yeo's 
deposition  concerning  last  night's  affray.  Moreover,  when 
Shallow  came,  he  refused  to  take  the  depositions,  because  they 
ought  to  have  been  made  before  a  brother  Shallow  at  Lydford ; 
and  in  the  wrangling  which  ensued,  was  very  near  finding  out 
what  Amyas  (fearing  fresh  loss  of  time  and  worse  evils  beside) 
had  commanded  to  be  concealed,  namely,  the  presence  of  Jesuits 
in  that  Moorland  Utopia.  Then,  in  broadest  Devon — 

"  And  do  you  call  this  Christian  conduct,  sir,  to  set  a  quiet 
man  like  me  upon  they  Gubbings,  as  if  I  was  going  to  risk  my 
precious  life — no,  nor  ever  a  constable  to  Okehampton  neither  ? 
Let  Lydfor'  men  mind  Lydfor'  roogs,  and  by  Lydfor'  law  if 


282  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XIV. 

they  will,  hang  first  and  try  after ;  but  as  for  me,  I've  rade  my 
Bible,  and  'He  that  meddleth  with  strife  is  like  him  that 
taketh  a  dog  by  the  ears.'  So  if  you  choose  to  sit  down  and 
ate  your  breakfast  with  me,  well  and  good  :  but  depositions  I'll 
have  none.  If  your  man  is  enquired  for,  you'll  be  answerable 
for  his  appearing,  in  course ;  but  I  expect  mortally "  (with  a 
wink),  "you  waint  hear  much  more  of  the  matter  from  any 
hand.  '  Leave  well  alone  is  a  good  rule,  but  leave  ill  alone  is 
a  better.' — So  we  says  round  about  here;  and  so  you'll  say, 
captain,  when  you  be  so  old  as  I." 

So  Amyas  sat  down  and  ate  his  breakfast,  and  went  on 
afterwards  a  long  and  weary  day's  journey,  till  he  saw  at  last 
beneath  him  the  broad  shining  river,  and  the  long  bridge,  and 
the  white  houses  piled  up  the  hill -side;  and  beyond,  over 
Raleigh  downs,  the  dear  old  tower  of  Northam  Church. 

Alas  !  Northam  was  altogether  a  desert  to  him  then ;  and 
Bideford,  as  it  turned  out,  hardly  less  so.  For  when  he  rode 
up  to  Sir  Richard's  door,  he  found  that  the  good  Knight  was 
still  in  Ireland,  and  Lady  Grenvile  at  Stow.  Whereupon  he 
rode  back  again  down  the  High  Street  to  that  same  bow-win- 
dowed Ship  Tavern  where  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Rose  made 
their  vow,  and  settled  himself  in  the  very  room  where  they  had 
supped. 

"Ah!  Mr.  Leigh — Captain  Leigh  now,  I  beg  pardon," 
quoth  mine  host.  "Bideford  is  an  empty  place  now-a-days, 
and  nothing  stirring,  sir.  What  with  Sir  Richard  to  Ireland, 
and  Sir  John  to  London,  and  all  the  young  gentlemen  to  the 
wars,  there's  no  one  to  buy  good  liquor,  and  no  one  to  court 
the  young  ladies,  neither.  Sack,  sir  1  I  hope  so.  I  haven't 
brewed  a  gallon  of  it  this  fortnight,  if  you'll  believe  me ;  ale, 
sir,  and  aqua  vitae,  and  such  low-bred  trade,  is  all  I  draw  now- 
a-days.  Try  a  pint  of  sherry,  sir,  now,  to  give  you  an  appetite. 
You  mind  my  sherry  of  old  ?  Jane  !  Sherry  and  sugar,  quick, 
while  I  pull  off  the  captain's  boots." 

Amyas  sat  weary  and  sad,  while  the  innkeeper  chattered  on. 

"  Ah,  sir !  two  or  three  like  you  would  set  the  young  ladies 
all  alive  again.  By-the-by,  there's  been  strange  doings  among 
them  since  you  were  here  last.  You  mind  Mistress  Salterne  !" 

"  For  God's  sake,  don't  let  us  have  that  story,  man  !  I 
heard  enough  of  it  at  Plymouth  ! "  said  Amyas,  in  so  disturbed 
a  tone  that  mine  host  looked  up,  and  said  to  himself— 

"Ah,  poor  young  gentleman,  he's  one  of  the  hard-hit  ones." 

"  How  is  the  old  man  1"  asked  Amyas,  after  a  pause. 


CHAP.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  283 

"  Bears  it  well  enough,  sir ;  but  a  changed  man.  Never 
speaks  to  a  soul,  if  he  can  help  it.  Some  folk  say  he's  not 
right  in  his  head;  or  turned  miser,  or  somewhat,  and  takes 
nought  but  bread  and  water,  and  sits  up  all  night  in  the  room 
as  was  hers,  turning  over  her  garments.  Heaven  knows  what's 
on  his  mind — they  do  say  he  was  over  hard  on  her,  and  that 
drove  her  to  it.  All  I  know  is,  he  has  never  been  in  here  for 
a  drop  of  liquor  (and  he  came  as  regular  every  evening  as  the 
town  clock,  sir)  since  she  went,  except  a  ten  days  ago,  and  then 
he  met  young  Mr.  Gary  at  the  door,  and  I  heard  him  ask  Mr. 
Gary  when  you  would  be  home,  sir." 

"  Put  on  my  boots  again.     I'll  go  and  see  him." 

"  Bless  you,  sir  !     What,  without  your  sack  ?" 

"Drink  it  yourself,  man." 

"  But  you  wouldn't  go  out  again  this  time  o'  night  on  an 
empty  stomach,  now?" 

"  Fill  my  men's  stomachs  for  them,  and  never  mind  mine. 
It's  market-day,  is  it  not  1  Send  out,  and  see  whether  Mr. 
Gary  is  still  in  town;"  and  Amyas  strode  out,  and  along  the 
quay  to  Bridgeland  Street,  and  knocked  at  Mr.  Salterne's 
door. 

Salterne  himself  opened  it,  with  his  usual  stern  courtesy. 

"  I  saw  you  coming  up  the  street,  sir.  I  have  been  expect- 
ing this  honour  from  you  for  some  time  past.  I  dreamt  of  you 
only  last  night,  and  many  a  night  before  that  too.  Welcome, 
sir,  into  a  lonely  house.  I  trust  the  good  knight  your  general 
is  well." 

"  The  good  knight  my  general  is  with  God  who  made  him, 
Mr.  Salterne." 

"Dead,  sir?" 

"  Foundered  at  sea  on  our  way  home ;  and  the  Delight  lost 
too." 

" Humph  !"  growled  Salterne,  after  a  minute's  silence.  "I 
had  a  venture  in  her.  I  suppose  it's  gone.  No  matter — I  can 
afford  it,  sir,  and  more,  I  trust.  And  he  was  three  years 
younger  than  I !  And  Draper  Heard  was  buried  yesterday,  five 
years  younger. — How  is  it  that  every  one  can  die,  except  me  1 
Come  in,  sir,  come  in  ;  I  have  forgotten  my  manners." 

And  he  led  Amyas  into  his  parlour,  and  called  to  the  ap- 
prentices to  run  one  way,  and  to  the  cook  to  run  another. 

"You  must  not  trouble  yourself  to  get  me  supper,  indeed." 

"  I  must  though,  sir,  and  the  best  of  wine  too ;  and  old 
Salterne  had  a  good  tap  of  Alicant  in  old  time,  old  time,  old 


284  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XIV. 

time,  sir  !  and  you  must  drink  it  now,  whether  he  does  or  not !" 
and  out  he  bustled. 

Amyas  sat  still,  wondering  what  was  coming  next,  and 
puzzled  at  the  sudden  hilarity  of  the  man,  as  well  as  his  hospi- 
tality, so  different  from  what  the  innkeeper  had  led  him  to 
expect. 

In  a  minute  more  one  of  the  apprentices  came  in  to  lay  the 
cloth,  and  Amyas  questioned  him  about  his  master. 

"  Thank  the  Lord  that  you  are  come,  sir,"  said  the  lad. 

"Why,  then?" 

"  Because  there'll  be  a  chance  of  us  poor  fellows  getting  a 
little  broken  meat.  We'm  half-starved  this  three  months — 
bread  and  dripping,  bread  and  dripping,  oh  dear,  sir !  And  now 
he's  sent  out  to  the  inn  for  chickens,  and  game,  and  salads,  and 
all  that  money  can  buy,  and  down  in  the  cellar  haling  out  the 
best  of  wine." — And  the  lad  smacked  his  lips  audibly  at  the 
thought. 

"Is  he  out  of  his  mind?" 

"  I  can't  tell ;  he  saith  as  how  he  must  save  mun's  money 
now-a-days ;  for  he've  a  got  a  great  venture  on  hand  :  but  what  a 
be  he  tell'th  no  man.  They  call'th  mun  'bread  and  dripping'  now, 
sir,  all  town  over,"  said  the  prentice,  confidentially,  to  Amyas. 

"  They  do,  do  they,  sirrah  !  Then  they  will  call  me  bread 
and  no  dripping  to-morrow ! "  and  old  Salterne,  entering  from 
behind,  made  a  dash  at  the  poor  fellow's  ears :  but  luckily 
thought  better  of  it,  having  a  couple  of  bottles  in  each  hand. 

"My  dear  sir,"  said  Amyas,  "you  don't  mean  us  to  drink 
all  that  wine?" 

"  Why  not,  sir  ?"  answered  Salterne,  in  a  grim,  half-sneering 
tone,  thrusting  out  his  square-grizzled  beard  and  chin.  "  Why 
not,  sir  ?  why  should  I  not  make  merry  when  I  have  the  honour 
of  a  noble  captain  in  my  house  ?  one  who  has  sailed  the  seas, 
sir,  and  cut  Spaniards'  throats ;  and  may  cut  them  again  too ; 
eh,  sir?  Boy,  where's  the  kettle  and  the  sugar?" 

"  What  on  earth  is  the  man  at  V  quoth  Amyas  to  himself 
— "flattering  me,  or  laughing  at  me?" 

"Yes,"  he  ran  on,  half  to  himself,  in  a  deliberate  tone, 
evidently  intending  to  hint  more  than  he  said,  as  he  began 
brewing  the  sack — in  plain  English,  hot  negus ;  "  Yes,  bread 
and  dripping  for  those  who  can't  fight  Spaniards ;  but  the  best 
that  money  can  biiy  for  those  who  can.  I  heard  of  you  at 

Smerwick,  sir Yes,  bread  and  dripping  for  me  too — I  can't 

fight  Spaniards  :  but  for  such  as  you.  Look  here,  sir  ;  I  should 


CHAP.  Xiv.]         SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINCS.  285 

like  to  feed  a  crew  of  such  up,  as  you'd  feed  a  main  of  fighting- 
cocks,  and  then  start  them  with  a  pair  of  Sheffield  spurs  a-piece 
— you've  a  good  one  there  to  your  side,  sir :  but  don't  you  think 
a  man  might  carry  two  now,  and  fight  as  they  say  those  Chineses 
do,  a  sword  to  each  hand1?  You  could  kill  more  that  way, 
Captain  Leigh,  I  reckon  1" 

Amyas  half  laughed. 

"  One  will  do,  Mr.  Salterne,  if  one  is  quick  enough  with  it." 

"  Humph  ! — Ah — No  use  being  in  a  hurry.  I  haven't  been 
in  a  hurry.  No — I  waited  for  you ;  and  here  you  are  and 
welcome,  sir  !  Here  comes  supper  :  a  light  matter,  sir,  you  see. 
A  capon  and  a  brace  of  partridges.  I  had  no  time  to  feast  you 
as  you  deserve." 

And  so  he  ran  on  all  supper-time,  hardly  allowing  Amyas  to 
get  a  word  in  edge-ways  :  but  heaping  him  with  coarse  flattery, 
and  urging  him  to  drink,  till  after  the  cloth  was  drawn,  and 
the  two  left  alone,  he  grew  so  outrageous  that  Amyas  was  forced 
to  take  him  to  task  good-humouredly. 

"  Now,  my  dear  sir,  you  have  feasted  me  royally,  and  better 
far  than  I  deserve :  but  why  will  you  go  about  to  make  me 
drunk  twice  over,  first  with  vainglory  and  then  with  wine  1" 

Salterne  looked  at  him  a  while  fixedly,  and  then,  sticking 
out  his  chin — "  Because,  Captain  Leigh,  I  am  a  man  who  has 
all  his  life  tried  the  crooked  road  first,  and  found  the  straight 
one  the  safer  after  all." 

"  Eh,  sir  1  That  is  a  strange  speech  for  one  who  bears  the 
character  of  the  most  upright  man  in  Bideford." 

"  Humph.  So  I  thought  myself  once,  sir  ;  and  well  I  have 
proved  it.  But  I'll  be  plain  with  you,  sir.  You've  heard  how 
— how  I've  fared  since  you  saw  me  last?" 

Amyas  nodded  his  head. 

"I  thought  so.  Shame  rides  post.  Now  then,  Captain 
Leigh,  listen  to  me.  I,  being  a  plain  man  and  a  burgher,  and 
one  that  never  drew  iron  in  my  life  except  to  mend  a  pen,  ask 
you,  being  a  gentleman  and  a  captain  and  a  man  of  honour, 
with  a  weapon  to  your  side,  and  harness  to  your  back — what 
would  you  do  in  my  place  ?" 

"Humph!"  said  Amyas,  "that  would  very  much  depend 
on  whether  '  my  place '  was  my  own  fault  or  not." 

"  And  what  if  it  were,  sir  1  What  if  all  that  the  charitable 
folks  of  Bideford — (Heaven  reward  them  for  their  tender 
mercies  !) — have  been  telling  you  in  the  last  hour  be  true,  sir, 
— true  !  and  yet  not  half  the  truth  1" 


286  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Amyas  gave  a  start. 

"  Ah,  you  shrink  from  me  !  Of  course  a  man  is  too  right- 
eous to  forgive  those  who  repent,  though  God  is  not." 

"  God  knows,  sir " 

"Yes,  sir,  God  does  know — all ;  and  you  shall  know  a  little 
— as  much  as  I  can  tell — or  you  understand.  Come  upstairs 
with  me,  sir,  as  you'll  drink  no  more ;  I  have  a  liking  for  you. 
I  have  watched  you  from  your  boyhood,  and  I  can  trust  you,  and 
I'll  show  you  what  I  never  showed  to  mortal  man  but  one." 

And,  taking  up  a  candle,  he  led  the  way  upstairs,  while 
Amyas  followed  wondering. 

He  stopped  at  a  door,  and  unlocked  it. 

"  There,  come  in.  Those  shutters  have  not  been  opened 
since  she "  and  the  old  man  was  silent. 

Amyas  looked  round  the  room.  It  was  a  low  wainscoted 
room,  such  as  one  sees  in  old  houses :  everything  was  in  the 
most  perfect  neatness.  The  snow-white  sheets  on  the  bed  were 
turned  down  as  if  ready  for  an  occupant.  There  were  books 
arranged  on  the  shelves,  fresh  flowers  on  the  table ;  the  dress- 
ing-table had  all  its  woman's  mundus  of  pins,  and  rings,  and 
brushes ;  even  the  dressing-gown  lay  over  the  chair-back. 
Everything  was  evidently  just  as  it  had  been  left. 

"  This  was  her  room,  sir,"  whispered  the  old  man. 

Amyas  nodded  silently,  and  half  drew  back. 

"  You  need  not  be  modest  about  entering  it  now,  sir,"  whis- 
pered he,  with  a  sort  of  sneer.  "  There  has  been  no  frail  flesh 
and  blood  in  it  for  many  a  day." 

Amyas  sighed. 

"  I  sweep  it  out  myself  every  morning,  and  keep  all  tidy. 
See  here  !"  and  he  pulled  open  a  drawer.  "Here  are  all  her 
gowns,  and  there  are  her  hoods ;  and  there- — I  know  'em  all  by 
heart  now,  and  the  place  of  eveiy  one.  And  there,  sir " 

And  he  opened  a  cupboard,  where  lay  in  rows  all  Rose's 
dolls,  and  the  worn-out  playthings  of  her  childhood. 

"  That's  the  pleasantest  place  of  all  in  the  room  to  me,"  said 
he,  whispering  still :  "for  it  minds  me  of  when — and  maybe, 
she  may  become  a  little  child  once  more,  sir ;  it's  written  in  the 
Scripture,  you  know " 

"Amen !"  said  Amyas,  who  felt,  to  his  own  wonder,  a  big 
tear  stealing  down  each  cheek. 

"  And  now,"  he  whispered,  "  one  thing  mora  Look  here  ! " 
— and  pulling  out  a  key,  he  unlocked  a  chest,  and  lifted  up  tray 
after  tray  of  necklaces  and  jewels,  furs,  lawns,  cloth  of  gold. 


CHAI-.  XIV.]        SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.  287 

"  Look  there  !  Two  tlioiisaud  pound  won't  buy  that  chest. 
Twenty  years  have  I  been  getting  those  things  together.  That's 
the  cream  of  many  a  Levant  voyage,  and  East  Indian  voyage, 
and  West  Indian  voyage.  My  Lady  Bath  can't  match  those 
pearls  in  her  grand  house  at  Tawstock ;  I  got  'em  from  a 
Genoese,  though,  and  paid  for  'em.  Look  at  that  embroidered 
lawn  !  There's  not  such  a  piece  in  London ;  no,  nor  in  Alex- 
andria, I'll  warrant ;  nor  short  of  Calicut,  where  it  came  from. 
.  .  Look  here  again,  there's  a  golden  cup !  I  bought  that  of 
one  that  was  out  with  Pizarro  in  Peru.  And  look  here,  again  !" 
— and  the  old  man  gloated  over  the  treasure. 

"  And  whom  do  you  think  I  kept  all  these  for  ?  These  were 
for  her  wedding-day — for  her  wedding-day.  For  your  wedding- 
day,  if  you'd  been  minded,  sir  !  Yes,  yours,  sir  !  And  yet,  I 
believe,  I  was  so  ambitious  that  I  would  not  have  let  her  marry 
under  an  earl,  all  the  while  I  was  pretending  to  be  too  proud  to 
throw  her  at  the  head  of  a  squire's  son.  Ah  well !  There  was 
my  idol,  sir.  I  made  her  mad,  I  pampered  her  up  with  gew- 
gaws and  vanity ;  and  then,  because  my  idol  was  just  what  I 
had  made  her,  I  turned  again  and  rent  her. 

"And  now,"  said  he,  pointing  to  the  open  chest,  "that  was 
what  I  meant;  and  that"  (pointing  to  the  empty  bed)  "was 
what  God  meant.  Never  mind.  Come  downstairs  and  finish 
your  wine.  I  see  you  don't  care  about  it  all.  Why  should  you  ! 
you  are  not  her  father,  and  you  may  thank  God  you  are  not. 
Go,  and  be  merry  while  you  can,  young  sir  !  ...  And  yet, 
all  this  might  have  been  yours.  And — but  I  don't  suppose  you 
are  one  to  be  won  by  money — but  all  this  may  be  yours  still, 
and  twenty  thousand  pounds  to  boot." 

"  I  want  no  money,  sir,  but  what  I  can  earn  with  my  own 
sword." 

"  Earn  my  money,  then  !" 

"  What  on  earth  do  you  want  of  me  !" 

"  To  keep  your  oath,"  said  Salterne,  clutching  his  arm,  and 
looking  up  into  his  face  with  searching  eyes. 

"  My  oath  !     How  did  you  know  that  I  had  one  1" 

"  Ah  !  you  were  well  ashamed  of  it,  I  suppose,  next  day  ! 
A  drunken  frolic  all  about  a  poor  merchant's  daughter !  But 
there  is  nothing  hidden  that  shall  not  be  revealed,  nor  done  in 
the  closet  that  is  not  proclaimed  on  the  house-tops." 

"Ashamed  of  it,  sir,  I  never  was:  but  I  have  a  right  to 
ask  how  you  came  to  know  it  1" 

"  What  if  a  poor  fat  squinny  rogue,  a  low-born  fellow  even 


288    HOW  YEO  SLEW  THE  KING  OF  THE  GUBBINGS.    [CHAP.  xiv. 

as  I  am,  whom  you  had  baffled  and  made  a  laughing-stock,  had 
come  to  me  in  my  loneliness  and  sworn  before  God  that  if  you 
honourable  gentlemen  would  not  keep  your  words,  he  the  clown 
would  V 

"  John  Brimblecombe  ?" 

"And  what  if  I  had  brought  him  where  I  have  brought 
you,  and  shown  him  what  I  have  shown  you,  and,  instead  of 
standing  as  stiff  as  any  Spaniard,  as  you  do,  he  had  thrown 
himself  on  his  knees  by  that  bedside,  and  wept  and  prayed,  sir, 
till  he  opened  my  hard  heart  for  the  first  and  last  time,  and  I 
fell  down  on  my  sinful  knees  and  wept  and  prayed  by  him?" 

"  I  am  not  given  to  weeping,  Mr.  Salterne,"  said  Amyas ; 
"  and  as  for  praying,  I  don't  know  yet  what  I  have  to  pray  for, 
on  her  account :  my  business  is  to  work.  Show  me  what  I  can 
do ;  and  when  you  have  done  that,  it  will  be  full  time  to  up- 
braid me  with  not  doing  it." 

"  You  can  cut  that  fellow's  throat." 

"  It  will  take  a  long  arm  to  reach  him." 

"  I  suppose  it  is  as  easy  to  sail  to  the  Spanish  Main  as  it 
was  to  sail  round  the  world." 

"  My  good  sir,"  said  Amyas,  "  I  have  at  this  moment  no 
more  worldly  goods  than  my  clothes  and  my  sword ;  so  how  to 
sail  to  the  Spanish  Main,  I  don't  quite  see." 

"  And  do  you  suppose,  sir,  that  I  should  hint  to  you  of  such 
a  voyage  if  I  meant  you  to  be  at  the  charge  of  it  ?  No,  sir ;  if 
you  want  two  thousand  pounds,  or  five,  to  fit  a  ship,  take  it ! 
Take  it,  sir  !  I  hoarded  money  for  my  child  :  and  now  I  will 
spend  it  to  avenge  her." 

Amyas  was  silent  for  a  while  ;  the  old  man  still  held  his  arm, 
still  looked  up  steadfastly  and  fiercely  in  his  face. 

"  Bring  me  home  that  man's  head,  and  take  ship,  prizes — 
all !  Keep  the  gain,  sir,  and  give  me  the  revenge  !" 

"  Gain  1  Do  you  think  I  need  bribing,  sir  ?  What  kept 
me  silent  was  the  thought  of  my  mother  :  I  dare  not  go  without 
her  leave." 

Salterne  made  a  gesture  of  impatience. 

"  I  dare  not,  sir;  I  must  obey  my  parent,  whatever  else  I  do." 

"Humph!"  said  he.  "If  others  had  obeyed  theirs  as 
well ! — But  you  are  right,  Captain  Leigh,  right.  You  will 
prosper,  whoever  else  does  not.  Now,  sir,  good-night,  if  you 
will  let  me  be  the  first  to  say  so.  My  old  eyes  grow  heavy 
early  now-a-days.  Perhaps  it's  old  age,  perhaps  it's  sorrow." 

So  Amyas  departed  to  the  inn,  and  there,  to  his  great  joy, 


CHAP.  XV.]      HOW  BRIMBLECOMBE  UNDERSTOOD  AN  OATH.    289 

found  Gary  waiting  for  him,  from  whom  he  learnt  details, 
which  must  be  kept  for  another  chapter,  and  which  I  shall  tell, 
for  convenience'  sake,  in  my  own  words  and  not  in  his. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

HOW  MR.  JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  UNDERSTOOD  THE  NATURE 
OF  AN  OATH. 

"  The  Kynge  of  Spayn  is  a  foul  paynim, 
And  lievetli  on  Mahound  ; 
And  pity  it  were  that  lady  fayre 
Should  marry  a  heathen  hound." — Kyng  Estmcrc. 

ABOUT  six  weeks  after  the  duel,  the  miller  at  Stow  had  come 
up  to  the  great  house  in  much  tribulation,  to  borrow  the  blood- 
hounds. Rose  Salterne  had  vanished  in  the  night,  no  man 
knew  whither. 

Sir  Richard  was  in  Bideford  :  but  the  old  steward  took  on 
himself  to  send  for  the  keepers,  and  down  went  the  serving- 
men  to  the  Mill  with  all  the  idle  lads  of  the  parish  at  their 
heels,  thinking  a  maiden-hunt  very  good  sport ;  and  of  course 
taking  a  view  of  the  case  as  favourable  as  possible  to  Rose. 

They  reviled  the  miller  aud  his  wife  roundly  for  hard-hearted 
old  heathens ;  and  had  no  doubt  that  they  had  driven  the  poor 
maid  to  throw  herself  over  cliff,  or  drown  herself  in  the  sea ; 
while  all  the  women  of  Stow,  on  the  other  hand,  were  of  unani- 
mous opinion  that  the  hussy  had  "gone  off"  with  some  bad 
fellow  ;  and  that  pride  was  sure  to  have  a  fall,  and  so  forth. 

The  facts  of  the  case  were,  that  all  Rose's  trinkets  were  left 
behind,  so  that  she  had  at  least  gone  off  honestly ;  and  nothing 
seemed  to  be  missing,  but  some  of  her  linen,  which  old  Anthony 
the  steward  broadly  hinted  was  likely  to  be  found  in  other 
people's  boxes.  The  only  trace  was  a  little  footmark  under  her 
bedroom  window.  On  that  the  bloodhound  was  laid  (of  course 
in  leash),  and  after  a  premonitory  whimper,  lifted  up  his  mighty 
voice,  and  started  bell-mouthed  through  the  garden  gate,  and 
up  the  lane,  towing  behind  him  the  panting  keeper,  till  they 
reached  the  downs  above,  and  went  straight  away  for  Marsland- 
mouth,  where  the  whole  posse  comitatus  pulled  up  breathless 
at  the  door  of  Lucy  Passmore. 

Lucy,  as  perhaps  I  should  have  said  before,  was  now  a 
widow,  and  found  her  widowhood  not  altogether  contrary  to  her 

u 


290  HOW  MR.  JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  [CHAP.  XV. 

interest.  Her  augury  about  her  old  man  had  been  fulfilled ;  he 
had  never  returned  since  the  night  on  which  he  put  to  sea  with 
Eustace  and  the  Jesuits. 

"  Some  natural  tears  she  shed,  but  dried  them  soon  " — 

as  many  of  them,  at  least,  as  were  not  required  for  purposes  of 
business  ;  and  then  determined  to  prevent  suspicion  by  a  bold 
move ;  she  started  off  to  Stow,  and  told  Lady  Grenvile  a  most 
pathetic  tale :  how  her  husband  had  gone  out  to  pollock  fishing, 
and  never  returned :  but  how  she  had  heard  horsemen  gallop 
past  her  window  in  the  dead  of  night,  and  was  sure  they  must 
have  been  the  Jesuits,  and  that  they  had  carried  off  her  old 
man  by  main  force,  and  probably,  after  making  use  of  his  ser- 
vices, had  killed  and  salted  him  down  for  provision  on  their 
voyage  back  to  the  Pope  at  Rome ;  after  which  she  ended  by 
entreating  protection  against  those  "  Popish  skulkers  up  to 
Chapel,"  who  were  sworn  to  do  her  a  mischief;  and  by  an 
appeal  to  Lady  Grenvile's  sense  of  justice,  as  to  whether  the 
queen  ought  not  to  allow  her  a  pension,  for  having  had  her 
heart's  love  turned  into  a  sainted  martyr  by  the  hands  of 
idolatrous  traitors. 

Lady  Grenvile  (who  had  a  great  opinion  of  Lucy's  medical 
skill,  and  always  sent  for  her  if  one  of  the  children  had  a 
"housty,"  i.e.  sore  throat)  went  forth  and  pleaded  the  case 
before  Sir  Richard  with  such  effect,  that  Lucy  was  on  the  whole 
better  off  than  ever  for  the  next  two  or  three  years.  But  now 
— what  had  she  to  do  with  Rose's  disappearance  1  and,  indeed, 
where  was  she  herself  1  Her  door  was  fast ;  and  round  it  her 
flock  of  goats  stood,  crying  in  vain  for  her  to  come  and  milk 
them  ;  while  from  the  down  above,  her  donkeys,  wandering  at 
their  own  sweet  will,  answered  the  bay  of  the  bloodhound  with 
a  burst  of  harmony. 

"  They'm  laughing  at  us,  keper,  they  neddies  ;  sure  enough, 
we'm  lost  our  labour  here." 

But  the  bloodhound,  after  working  about  the  door  a  while, 
turned  down  the  glen,  and  never  stopped  till  he  reached  the 
margin  of  the  sea. 

"They'm  taken  water.  Let's  go  back,  and  rout  out  the 
old  witch's  house." 

"Tis  just  like  that  old  Lucy,  to  lock  a  poor  maid  into 
shame." 

And  returning,  they  attacked  the  cottage,  and  by  a  general 
plebiscitum,  ransacked  the  little  dwelling,  partly  in  indignation, 


OHAP.  XV.]      UNDERSTOOD  THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.          291 

and  partly,  if  the  truth  be  told,  in  the  hope  of  plunder  :  but 
plunder  there  was  none.  Lucy  had  decamped  with  all  her 
movable  wealth,  saving  the  huge  black  cat  among  the  embers, 
who  at  the  sight  of  the  bloodhound  vanished  up  the  chimney 
(some  said  with  a  strong  smell  of  brimstone),  and  being  viewed 
outside,  was  chased  into  the  woods,  where  she  lived,  I  doubt 
not,  many  happy  years,  a  scourge  to  all  the  rabbits  of  the  glen. 

The  goats  and  donkeys  were  driven  off  up  to  Stow  ;  and 
the  mob  returned,  a  little  ashamed  of  themselves  when  their 
brief  wrath  was  past;  and  a  little  afraid,  too,  of  what  Sir 
Richard  might  say. 

He,  when  he  returned,  sold  the  donkeys  and  goats,  and 
gave  the  money  to  the  poor,  promising  to  refund  the  same,  if 
Lucy  returned  and  gave  herself  up  to  justice.  But  Lucy  did 
not  return  ;  and  her  cottage,  from  which  the  neighbours  shrank 
as  from  a  haunted  place,  remained  as  she  had  left  it,  and  crum- 
bled slowly  down  to  four  fern-covered  walls,  past  which  the 
little  stream  went  murmuring  on  from  pool  to  pool — the  only 
voice,  for  many  a  year  to  come,  which  broke  the  silence  of  that 
lonely  glen. 

A  few  days  afterwards,  Sir  Richard,  on  his  way  from  Bide- 
ford  to  Stow,  looked  in  at  Clovelly  Court,  and  mentioned,  with 
a  "  by  the  by,"  news  which  made  Will  Gary  leap  from  his  seat 
almost  to  the  ceiling.  What  it  was  we  know  already. 

"And  there  is  no  clue1?"  asked  old  Gary;  for  his  son  was 
speechless. 

"  Only  this ;  I  hear  that  some  fellow  prowling  about  the 
cliffs  that  night  saw  a  pinnace  running  for  Lundy." 

Will  rose,  and  went  hastily  out  of  the  room. 

In  half-an-hour,  he  and  three  or  four  armed  servants  were 
on  board  a  trawling-skiff,  and  away  to  Lundy.  He  did  not 
return  for  three  days,  and  then  brought  news  :  that  an  elderly 
man,  seemingly  a  foreigner,  had  been  lodging  for  some  months 
past  in  a  part  of  the  ruined  Moresco  Castle,  which  was  tenanted 
by  one  John  Braund  ;  that  a  few  weeks  since  a  younger  man, 
a  foreigner  also,  had  joined  him  from  on  board  a  ship  :  the  ship 
a  Flushinger,  or  Easterling  of  some  sort.  The  ship  came  and 
went  more  than  once ;  and  the  young  man  in  her.  A  few  days 
since,  a  lady  and  her  maid,  a  stout  woman,  came  with  him  up 
to  the  castle,  and  talked  with  the  elder  man  a  long  while  in 
secret ;  abode  there  all  night ;  and  then  all  three  sailed  in  the 
morning.  The  fishermen  on  the  beach  had  heard  the  young 
man  call  the  other  father.  He  was  a  very  still  man,  much  as 


292  HOW  MR.   JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  [CHAP.  XV. 

a  mass-priest  might  be.  More  they  did  not  know,  or  did  not 
choose  to  know. 

Whereon,  Old  Gary  and  Sir  Richard  sent  Will  on  a  second 
trip  with  the  parish  constable  of  Hartland  (in  which  huge 
parish,  for  its  sins,  is  situate  the  Isle  of  Lundy,  ten  miles  out 
at  sea);  who  returned  with  the  body  of  the  hapless  John 
Braund,  farmer,  fisherman,  smuggler,  etc. ;  which  worthy,  after 
much  fruitless  examination  (wherein  examinate  was  afflicted 
with  extreme  deafness  and  loss  of  memory),  departed  to  Exeter 
gaol,  on  a  charge  of  "  harbouring  priests,  Jesuits,  gipsies,  and 
other  suspect  and  traitorous  persons." 

Poor  John  Braund,  whose  motive  for  entertaining  the  said 
ugly  customers  had  probably  been  not  treason,  but  a  wife, 
seven  children,  and  arrears  of  rent,  did  not  thrive  under  the 
change  from  the  pure  air  of  Lundy  to  the  pestiferous  one  of 
Exeter  gaol,  made  infamous,  but  two  years  after  (if  I  recollect 
right),  by  a  "black  assizes,"  nearly  as  fatal  as  that  more  notori- 
ous one  at  Oxford ;  for  in  it,  "  whether  by  the  stench  of  the 
prisoners,  or  by  a  stream  of  foul  air,"  judge,  jury,  counsel,  and 
bystanders,  numbering  among  them  many  members  of  the  best 
families  in  Devon,  sickened  in  court,  and  died  miserably  within 
a  few  days. 

John  Braund,  then,  took  the  gaol-fever  in  a  week,  and  died 
raving  in  that  noisome  den  :  his  secret,  if  he  had  one,  perished 
with  him,  and  nothing  but  vague  suspicion  was  left  as  to  Rose 
Salterne's  fate.  That  she  had  gone  off  with  the  Spaniard,  few 
doubted ;  but  whither,  and  in  what  character  1  On  that  last 
subject,  be  sure,  no  mercy  was  shown  to  her  by  many  a  Bide- 
ford  dame,  who  had  hated  the  poor  girl  simply  for  her  beauty ; 
and  by  many  a  country  lady,  who  had  "always  expected  that 
the  girl  would  be  brought  to  ruin  by  the  absurd  notice,  beyond 
what  her  station  had  a  right  to,  which  was  taken  of  her:" 
while  every  young  maiden  aspired  to  fill  the  throne  which  Rose 
had  abdicated.  So  that,  on  the  whole,  Bideford  considered 
itself  as  going  on  as  well  without  poor  Rose  as  it  had  done 
with  her,  or  even  better.  And  though  she  lingered  in  some 
hearts  still  as  a  fair  dream,  the  business  and  the  bustle  of  each  day 
soon  swept  that  dream  away,  and  her  place  knew  her  no  more. 

And  WiU  Gary  1 

He  was  for  a  while  like  a  man  distracted.  He  heaped  him- 
self with  all  manner  of  superfluous  reproaches,  for  having  (as 
he  said)  first  brought  the  Rose  into  disgrace,  and  then  driven 
her  into  the  arms  of  the  Spaniard ;  while  St.  Leger,  who  was  a 


CHAP.  XV.]      UNDERSTOOD  THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.          293 

sensible  man  enough,  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  him  that  the 
fault  was  not  his  at  all :  that  the  two  must  have  been  attached 
to  each  other  long  before  the  quarrel ;  that  it  must  have  ended 
so,  sooner  or  later ;  that  old  Salterne's  harshness,  rather  than 
Gary's  wrath,  had  hastened  the  catastrophe ;  and  finally,  that 
the  Rose  and  her  fortunes  were,  now  that  she  had  eloped  with 
a  Spaniard,  not  worth  troubling  their  heads  about.  Poor  Will 
would  not  be  so  comforted.  He  wrote  off  to  Frank  at  White- 
hall, telling  him  the  whole  truth,  calling  himself  all  fools  and 
villains,  and  entreating  Frank's  forgiveness ;  to  which  he 
received  an  answer,  in  which  Frank  said  that  Will  had  no 
reason  to  accuse  himself ;  that  these  strange  attachments  were 
due  to  a  synastria,  or  sympathy  of  the  stars,  which  ruled  the 
destinies  of  each  person,  to  fight  against  which  was  to  fight 
against  the  heavens  themselves ;  that  he,  as  a  brother  of  the 
Rose,  was  bound  to  believe,  nay,  to  assert  at  the  sword's  point 
if  need  were,  that  the  incomparable  Rose  of  Torridge  could 
make  none  but  a  worthy  and  virtuous  choice ;  and  that  to  the 
man  whom  she  had  honoured  by  her  affection  was  due  on  their 
part,  Spaniard  and  Papist  though  he  might  be,  all  friendship, 
worship,  and  loyal  faith  for  evermore. 

And  honest  Will  took  it  all  for  gospel,  little  dreaming  what 
agony  of  despair,  what  fearful  suspicions,  what  bitter  prayers, 
this  letter  had  cost  to  the  gentle  heart  of  Francis  Leigh. 

He  showed  the  letter  triumphantly  to  St.  Leger ;  and  he 
was  quite  wise  enough  to  gainsay  no  word  of  it,  at  least  aloud ; 
but  quite  wise  enough,  also,  to  believe  in  secret  that  Frank 
looked  on  the  matter  in  quite  a  different  light :  however,  he 
contented  himself  with  saying — 

"The  man  is  an  angel  as  his  mother  is!"  and  there  the 
matter  dropped  for  a  few  days,  till  one  came  forward  who  had 
no  mind  to  let  it  drop,  and  that  was  Jack  Brimblecombe,  now 
curate  of  Hartland  town,  and  "  passing  rich  on  forty  pounds 
a  year." 

"  I  hope  no  offence,  Mr.  William ;  but  when  are  you  and 
the  rest  going  after — after  her?"  The  name  stuck  in  his  throat. 

Gary  was  taken  aback. 

"What's  that  to  thee,  Catiline  the  blood -drinker?"  asked 
he,  trying  to  laugh  it  off. 

"  What  1  Don't  laugh  at  me,  sir,  for  it's  no  laughing 
matter.  I  drank  that  night  nought  worse,  I  expect,  than  red 
wine.  Whatever  it  was,  we  swore  our  oaths,  Mr.  Gary ;  and 
oaths  are  oaths,  say  I." 


294  HOW  MR.  JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  [CHAP.  XV. 

"  Of  course,  Jack,  of  course;  but  to  go  to  look  for  her — and 
when  we've  found  her,  cut  her  lover's  throat.  Absurd,  Jack, 
even  if  she  were  worth  looking  for,  or  his  throat  worth  cutting. 
Tut,  tut,  tut- 
But  Jack  looked  steadfastly  in  his  face,  and  after  some  silence, 

"  How  far  is  it  to  the  Caraccas,  then,  sir1?" 

"  What  is  that  to  thee,  man  V 

"  Why,  he  was  made  governor  thereof,  I  hear;  so  that  would 
be  the  place  to  find  her1?" 

"You  don't  mean  to  go  thither  to  seek  her?"  shouted  Gary, 
forcing  a  laugh. 

"  That  depends  on  whether  I  can  go,  sir;  but  if  I  can  scrape 
the  money  together,  or  get  a  berth  on  board  some  ship,  why, 
God's  will  must  be  done." 

Will  looked  at  him,  to  see  if  he  had  been  drinking,  or  gone 
mad  ;  but  the  little  pigs'  eyes  were  both  sane  and  sober. 

Will  knew  no  answer.  To  laugh  at  the  poor  fellow  was 
easy  enough  ;  to  deny  that  he  was  right,  that  he  was  a  hero  and 
cavalier,  outdoing  romance  itself  in  faithfulness,  not  so  easy ; 
and  Gary,  in  the  first  impulse,  wished  him  at  the  bottom  of  the 
bay  for  shaming  him.  Of  course,  his  own  plan  of  letting  ill 
alone  was  the  rational,  prudent,  irreproachable  plan,  and  just 
what  any  gentleman  in  his  senses  would  have  done ;  but  here 
was  a  vulgar,  fat  curate,  out  of  his  senses,  determined  not  to  let 
ill  alone,  but  to  do  something,  as  Gary  felt  in  his  heart,  of  a  far 
diviner  stamp. 

"  Well,"  said  Jack,  in  his  stupid  steadfast  way,  "  it's  a  very 
bad  look-out ;  but  mother's  pretty  well  off,  if  father  dies,  and 
the  maidens  are  stout  wenches  enough,  and  will  make  tidy 
servants,  please  the  Lord.  And  you'll  see  that  they  come  to  no 
harm,  Mr.  William,  for  old  acquaintance'  sake,  if  I  never  come 
back." 

Gary  was  silent  with  amazement. 

"And,  Mr.  William,  you  know  me  for  an  honest  man,  I 
hope.  Will  you  lend  me  a  five  pound,  and  take  my  books  in 
pawn  for  them,  just  to  help  me  out." 

"  Are  you  mad,  or  in  a  dream  ?     You  will  never  find  her  !" 

'•'  That's  no  reason  why  I  shouldn't  do  my  duty  in  looking 
for  her,  Mr.  William." 

"  But,  my  good  fellow,  even  if  you  get  to  the  Indies,  you 
will  be  clapt  into  the  Inquisition,  and  burnt  alive,  as  sure  as 
your  name  is  Jack." 

"  I  know  that,"  said  he  in  a  doleful  tone  ;  "  and  a  sore 


CHAP.  XV.]       UNDERSTOOD  THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.        295 

struggle  of  the  flesh  I  have  had  about  it;  for  I  am  a  great 
coward,  Mr.  William,  a  dirty  coward,  and  always  was  as  you 
know :  but  maybe  the  Lord  will  take  care  of  me,  as  He  does  of 
little  children  and  drunken  men ;  and  if  not,  Mr.  Will,  I'd 
sooner  burn,  and  have  it  over,  than  go  on  this  way  any  longer, 
I  would  !"  and  Jack  burst  out  blubbering. 

"What  way,  my  dear  old  lad?"  said  Will,  softened  as  he 
well  might  be. 

"  Why,  not — not  to  know  whether — whether — whether  she's 
married  to  him  or  not — her  that  I  looked  up  to  as  an  angel  of 
God,  as  pure  as  the  light  of  day ;  and  knew  she  was  too  good 
for  a  poor  pot-head  like  me ;  and  prayed  for  her  every  night, 
God  knows,  that  she  might  marry  a  king,  if  there  was  one  fit 
for  her — and  I  not  to  know  whether  she's  living  in  sin  or  not, 
Mr.  William. — It's  more  than  I  can  bear,  and  there's  an  end  of 
it.  And  if  she  is  married  to  him  they  keep  no  faith  with 
heretics ;  they  can  dissolve  the  marriage,  or  make  away  with 
her  into  the  Inquisition ;  burn  her,  Mr.  Gary,  as  soon  as  burn 
me,  the  devils  incarnate  !" 

Gary  shuddered ;  the  fact,  true  and  palpable  as  it  was,  had 
never  struck  him  before. 

"  Yes  !  or  make  her  deny  her  God  by  torments,  if  she  hasn't 

done  it  already  for  love  to  that I  know  how  love  will  make 

a  body  sell  his  soul,  for  I've  been  in  love.  Don't  you  laugh  at 
me,  Mr.  Will,  or  I  shall  go  mad  !" 

"  God  knows,  I  was  never  less  inclined  to  laugh  at  you  in 
my  life,  my  brave  old  Jack." 

"Is  it  so,  then  1  Bless  you  for  that  word  !"  and  Jack  held 
out  his  hand.  "  But  what  will  become  of  my  soul,  after  my 
oath,  if  I  don't  seek  her  out,  just  to  speak  to  her,  to  warn  her, 
for  God's  sake,  even  if  it  did  no  good ;  just  to  set  before  her  the 
Lord's  curse  on  idolatry  and  Antichrist,  and  those  who  deny 
Him  for  the  sake  of  any  creature,  though  I  can't  think  He 
would  be  hard  on  her, — for  who  could  1  But  I  must  speak  all 
the  same.  The  Lord  has  laid  the  burden  on  me,  and  done  it 
must  be.  God  help  me  ! " 

"  Jack,"  said  Gary,  "  if  this  is  your  duty,  it  is  others'." 

"  No,  sir,  I  don't  say  that ;  you're  a  layman,  but  I  am  a 
deacon,  and  the  chaplain  of  you  all,  and  sworn  to  seek  out 
Christ's  sheep  scattered  up  and  down  this  naughty  world,  and 
that  innocent  lamb  first  of  all." 

"  You  have  sheep  at  Hartland,  Jack,  already." 

"  There's  plenty  better  than  I  will  tend  them,  when  I  am 


296  HOW  MR.  JOHN  BRIMBLECOMBE  [CHAP.XV. 

gone ;  but  none  that  will  tend  her,  because  none  love  her  like 
me,  and  they  won't  venture.  Who  will  1  It  can't  be  expected, 
and  no  shame  to  them  V 

"  I  wonder  what  Amyas  Leigh  would  say  to  all  this,  if  he 
were  at  home  V 

"Say?  He'd  do.  He  isn't  one  for  talking.  He'd  go 
through  fire  and  water  for  her,  you  trust  him,  Will  Gary ;  and 
call  me  an  ass  if  he  won't." 

"  Will  you  wait,  then,  till  he  comes  back,  and  ask  him  V 

"  He  may  not  be  back  for  a  year  and  mora" 

"  Hear  reason,  Jack.  If  you  will  wait  like  a  rational  and 
patient  man,  instead  of  rushing  blindfold  on  your  ruin,  some- 
thing may  be  done." 

"You  think  so!" 

"I  cannot  promise;  but " 

"  But  promise  me  one  thing.  Do  you  tell  Mr.  Frank  what 
I  say — or  rather,  I'll  warrant,  if  I  knew  the  truth,  he  has  said 
the  very  same  thing  himself  already." 

"  You  are  out  there,  old  man ;  for  here  is  his  own  hand- 
writing." 

Jack  read  the  letter  and  sighed  bitterly. 

"  Well,  I  did  take  him  for  another  guess  sort  of  fine  gentle- 
man. Still,  if  my  duty  isn't  his,  it's  mine  all  the  same.  I  judge 
no  man;  but  I  go,  Mr.  Gary." 

"  But  go  you  shall  not  till  Amyas  returns.  As  I  live,  I 
will  tell  your  father,  Jack,  unless  you  promise ;  and  you  dare 
not  disobey  him." 

"I  don't  know  even  that,  for  conscience  sake,"  said  Jack 
doubtfully. 

"  At  least,  you  stay  and  dine  here,  old  fellow,  and  we  will 
settle  whether  you  are  to  break  the  fifth  commandment  or  not, 
over  good  brewed  sack." 

Now  a  good  dinner  was  (as  we  know)  what  Jack  loved,  and 
loved  too  oft  in  vain ;  so  he  submitted  for  the  nonce,  and  Gary 
thought,  ere  he  went,  that  he  had  talked  him  pretty  well  round. 
At  least  he  went  home,  and  was  seen  no  more  for  a  week. 

But  at  the  end  of  that  time  he  returned,  and  said  with  a 
joyful  voice — 

"  I  have  settled  all,  Mr.  Will.  The  parson  of  Welcombe 
will  serve  my  church  for  two  Sundays,  and  I  am  away  for 
London  town,  to  speak  to  Mr.  Frank." 

"  To  London  1     How  wilt  get  there  ?" 

"  On  Shanks  his  mare,"  said  Jack,  pointing  to  his  bandy 


CHAP.  XV.  1      UNDERSTOOD  THE  NATURE  OF  AN  OATH.          297 

legs.     "  But  I  expect  I  can  get  a  lift  on  board  of  a  coaster  so 
far  as  Bristol,  and  it's  no  way  on  to  signify,  I  hear." 

Gary  tried  in  vain  to  dissuade  him ;  and  then  forced  on 
him  a  small  loan,  with  which  away  went  Jack,  and  Gary  heard 
no  more  of  him  for  three  weeks. 

At  last  he  walked  into  Clovelly  Court  again  just  before 
supper-time,  thin  and  leg-weary,  and  sat  himself  down  among 
the  serving-men  till  Will  appeared. 

Will  took  him  up  above  the  salt,  and  made  much  of  him 
(which  indeed  the  honest  fellow  much  needed),  and  after  supper 
asked  him  in  private  how  he  had  sped. 

"  I  have  learnt  a  lesson,  Mr.  William.  I've  learnt  that 
there  is  one  on  earth  loves  her  better  than  I,  if  she  had  but 
had  the  wit  to  have  taken  him." 

"  But  what  says  he  of  going  to  seek  her?" 

"  He  says  what  I  say,  Go  !  and  he  says  what  you  say, 
Wait." 

"  Go?     Impossible !     How  can  that  agree  with  his  letter?" 

"  That's  no  concern  of  mine.  Of  course,  being  nearer 
heaven  than  I  am,  he  sees  clearer  what  he  should  say  and  do 
than  I  can  see  for  him.  Oh,  Mr.  Will,  that's  not  a  man,  he's 
an  angel  of  God ;  but  he's  dying,  Mr.  Will." 

"  Dying  ?" 

"  Yes,  faith,  of  love  for  her.  I  can  see  it  in  his  eyes,  and 
hear  it  in  his  voice  ;  but  I  am  of  tougher  hide,  and  stitfer  clay, 
and  so  you  see  I  can't  die  even  if  I  tried.  But  I'll  obey  my 
betters,  and  wait." 

And  so  Jack  went  home  to  his  parish  that  very  evening, 
weary  as  he  was,  in  spite  of  all  entreaties  to  pass  the  night  at 
Clovelly.  But  he  had  left  behind  him  thoughts  in  Gary's 
mind,  which  gave  their  owner  no  rest  by  day  or  night,  till  the 
touch  of  a  seeming  accident  made  them  all  start  suddenly  into 
shape,  as  a  touch  of  the  freezing  water  covers  it  in  an  instant 
with  crystals  of  ice. 

He  was  lounging  (so  he  told  Amyas)  one  murky  day  on 
Bideford  quay,  when  up  came  Mr.  Salterne.  Gary  had  shunned 
him  of  late,  partly  from  delicacy,  partly  from  dislike  of  his 
supposed  hard-heartedness.  But  this  time  they  happened  to 
meet  full ;  and  Gary  could  not  pass  without  speaking  to  him. 

"  Well,  Mr.  Salterne,  and  how  goes  on  the  shipping  trade?" 

"  Well  enough,  sir,  if  some  of  you  young  gentlemen  would 
but  follow  Mr.  Leigh's  example,  and  go  forth  to  find  us  stay-at- 
homes  new  markets  for  our  ware." 


298     HOW  BRIMBLECOMBE  UNDERSTOOD  AN  OATH.    [CHAP.  xv. 

"  What  ?  you  want  to  be  rid  of  us,  eh  ?" 

"  I  don't  know  why  I  should,  sir.  We  shan't  cross  each 
other  now,  sir,  whatever  might  have  been  once.  But  if  I  were 
you,  I  should  be  in  the  Indies  about  now,  if  I  were  not  fighting 
the  queen's  battles  nearer  home." 

"  In  the  Indies  ?  I  should  make  but  a  poor  hand  of 
Drake's  trade."  And  so  the  conversation  dropped;  but  Gary 
did  not  forget  the  hint. 

"  So,  lad,  to  make  an  end  of  a  long  story,"  said  he  to 
Amyas  ;  "  if  you  are  minded  to  take  the  old  man's  offer,  so  am 
I :  and  Westward-ho  with  you,  come  foul  come  fair." 

"  It  will  be  but  a  wild-goose  chase,  Will." 

"  If  she  is  with  him,  we  shall  find  her  at  La  Guayra.  If 
she  is  not,  and  the  villain  has  cast  her  off  down  the  wind,  that 
will  be  only  an  additional  reason  for  making  an  example  of 
him." 

"  And  if  neither  of  them  are  there,  Will,  the  Plate-fleets 
will  be ;  so  it  will  be  our  own  shame  if  we  come  home  empty- 
handed.  But  will  your  father  let  you  run  such  a  risk  1" 

"  My  father  !"  said  Gary,  laughing.  "  He  has  just  now  so 
good  hope  of  a  long  string  of  little  Carys  to  fill  my  place,  that 
he  will  be  in  no  lack  of  an  heir,  come  what  will." 

"  Little  Carys  ?" 

"  I  tell  you  truth.  I  think  he  must  have  had  a  sly  sup  of 
that  fountain  of  perpetual  youth,  which  our  friend  Don  Guzman's 
grandfather  went  to  seek  in  Florida;  for  some  twelvemonth 
since,  he  must  needs  marry  a  tenant's  buxom  daughter  ;  and 
Mistress  Abishag  Jewell  has  brought  him  one  fat  baby  already. 
So  I  shall  go,  back  to  Ireland,  or  with  you :  but  somewhere. 
I  can't  abide  the  thing's  squalling,  any  more  than  I  can  seeing 
Mistress  Abishag  sitting  in  my  poor  dear  mother's  place,  and 
informing  me  every  other  day  that  she  is  come  of  an  illustrious 
house,  because  she  is  (or  is  not)  third  cousin  seven  times  re- 
moved to  my  father's  old  friend,  Bishop  Jewell  of  glorious 
memory.  I  had  three-parts  of  a  quarrel  with  the  dear  old  man 
the  other  day ;  for  after  one  of  her  peacock-bouts,  I  couldn't  for 
the  life  of  me  help  saying,  that  as  the  Bishop  had  written  an 
Apology  for  the  people  of  England,  my  father  had  better  con- 
jure up  his  ghost  to  write  an  apology  for  him,  and  head  it, 
'  Why  green  heads  should  grow  on  grey  shoulders.'" 

"  You  impudent  villain  !     And  what  did  he  say  V 

11  Laughed  till  he  cried  again,  and  told  me  if  I  did  not  like 
it  I  might  leave  it ;  which  is  just  what  I  intend  to  do.  Only 


CHAP.  XVI.]  THE  ADVENTURE  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  299 

mind,  if  we  go,  we  must  needs  take  Jack  Brimhlecombe  with 
us,  or  he  will  surely  heave  himself  over  Harty  Point,  and  his 
ghost  will  haunt  us  to  our  dying  day." 

"  Jack  shall  go.     None  deserves  it  better." 

After  which  there  was  a  long  consultation  on  practical 
matters,  and  it  was  concluded  that  Amyas  should  go  up  to 
London  and  sound  Frank  and  his  mother  before  any  further 
steps  were  taken.  The  other  brethren  of  the  Rose  were  scat- 
tered far  and  wide,  each  at  his  post,  and  St.  Leger  had  returned 
to  his  uncle,  so  that  it  would  be  unfair  to  them,  as  well  as  a 
considerable  delay,  to  demand  of  them  any  fulfilment  of  their 
vow.  And,  as  Amyas  sagely  remarked,  "  Too  many  cooks  spoil 
the  broth,  and  half-a-dozen  gentlemen  aboard  one  ship  are  as 
bad  as  two  kings  of  Brentford." 

With  which  maxim  he  departed  next  morning  for  London, 
leaving  Yeo  with  Gary. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  KOSE. 

"  He  is  brass  within,  and  steel  without, 
With  beams  on  his  topcastle  strong  ; 
And  eighteen  pieces  of  ordinance 
He  carries  on  either  side  along." 

Sir  Andrew  Barton. 

LET  us  take  boat,  as  Amyas  did,  at  Whitehall-stairs,  and  slip 
down  ahead  of  him  under  old  London  Bridge,  and  so  to  Dept- 
ford  Creek,  where  remains,  as  it  were  embalmed,  the  famous 
ship  Pelican,  in  which  Drake  had  sailed  round  the  world. 
There  she  stands,  drawn  up  high  and  dry  upon  the  sedgy  bank 
of  Thames,  like  an  old  warrior  resting  after  his  toil.  Nailed 
upon  her  mainmast  are  epigrams  and  verses  in  honour  of  her 
and  of  her  captain,  three  of  which,  by  the  Winchester  scholar, 
Camden  gives  in  his  History ;  and  Elizabeth's  self  consecrated 
her  solemnly,  and  having  banqueted  on  board,  there  and  then 
honoured  Drake  with  the  dignity  of  knighthood.  "  At  which 
time  a  bridge  of  planks,  by  which  they  came  on  board,  broke 
under  the  press  of  people,  and  fell  down  with  a  hundred  men 
upon  it,  who,  notwithstanding,  had  none  of  them  any  harm.  So 
as  that  ship  may  seem  to  have  been  built  under  a  lucky  planet." 
There  she  has  remained  since  as  a  show,  and  moreover  as  a 


300  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE       [CHAP.  XVI. 

sort  of  dining-hall  for  jovial  parties  from  the  City  ;  one  of  which 
would  seem  to  be  on  board  this  afternoon,  to  judge  from  the 
flags  which  bedizen  the  masts,  the  sounds  of  revelry  and  savoury 
steams  which  issue  from  those  windows  which  once  were  port- 
holes, and  the  rushing  to  and  fro  along  the  river  brink,  and  across 
that  lucky  bridge,  of  white-aproned  waiters  from  the  neighbour- 
ing Pelican  Inn.  A  great  feast  is  evidently  toward,  for  with 
those  white-aproned  waiters  are  gay  serving  men,  wearing  on 
their  shoulders  the  City-badge.  The  Lord  Mayor  is  giving  a 
dinner  to  certain  gentlemen  of  the  Leicester  house  party,  who 
are  interested  in  foreign  discoveries ;  and  what  place  so  fit  for 
such  a  feast  as  the  Pelican  itself? 

Look  at  the  men  all  round ;  a  nobler  company  you  will 
seldom  see.  Especially  too,  if  you  be  Americans,  look  at  their 
faces,  and  reverence  them  ;  for  to  them  and  to  their  wisdom  you 
owe  the  existence  of  your  mighty  fatherland. 

At  the  head  of  the  table  sits  the  Lord  Mayor  ;  whom  all 
readers  will  recognise  at  once,  for  he  is  none  other  than  that 
famous  Sir  Edward  Osborne,  clothworker,  and  ancestor  of  the 
Dukes  of  Leeds,  whose  romance  now-a-days  is  in  every  one's 
hands.  He  is  aged,  but  not  changed,  since  he  leaped  from  the 
window  upon  London  Bridge  into  the  roaring  tide  below,  to 
rescue  the  infant  who  is  now  his  wife.  The  chivalry  and 
promptitude  of  the  'prentice  boy  have  grown  and  hardened  into 
the  thoughtful  daring  of  the  wealthy  merchant  adventurer. 
There  he  sits,  a  right  kingly  man,  with  my  lord  Earl  of  Cum- 
berland on  his  right  hand,  and  Walter  Raleigh  on  his  left  ;  the 
three  talk  together  in  a  low  voice  on  the  chance  of  there  being 
vast  and  rich  countries  still  undiscovered  between  Florida  and 
the  River  of  Canada.  Raleigh's  half-scientific  declamation  and 
his  often  quotations  of  Doctor  Dee  the  conjuror,  have  less 
effect  on  Osborne  than  on  Cumberland  (who  tried  many  an 
adventure  to  foreign  parts,  and  failed  in  all  of  them ;  apparently 
for  the  simple  reason  that,  instead  of  going  himself,  he  sent 
other  people),  and  Raleigh  is  fain  to  call  to  his  help  the  quiet 
student  who  sits  on  his  left  hand,  Richard  Hakluyt,  of  Oxford. 
But  he  is  deep  in  talk  with  a  reverend  elder,  whose  long  white 
beard  flows  almost  to  his  waist,  and  whose  face  is  furrowed  by 
a  thousand  storms ;  Anthony  Jeukinson  by  name,  the  great 
Asiatic  traveller,  who  is  discoursing  to  the  Christchurch  vir- 
tuoso of  reindeer  sledges  and  Siberian  steppes,  and  of  the 
fossil  ivory,  plain  proof  of  Noah's  flood,  which  the  Tungoos  dig 
from  the  ice-cliffs  of  the  Arctic  sea.  Next  to  him  is  Christopher 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  301 

Carlile,  Walsiugham's  son-in-law  (as  Sidney  also  is  now),  a 
valiant  captain,  afterwards  general  of  the  soldiery  in  Drake's 
triumphant  West  Indian  raid  of  1585,  with  whom  a  certain 
Bishop  of  Carthagena  will  hereafter  drink  good  wine.  He  is 
now  busy  talking  with  Alderman  Hart  the  grocer,  Sheriff 
Spencer  the  clothworker,  and  Charles  Leigh  (Amyas's  merchant- 
cousin),  and  with  Aldworth  the  mayor  of  Bristol,  and  William 
Salterne,  alderman  thereof,  and  cousin  of  our  friend  at  Bide- 
ford.  For  Carlile,  and  Secretary  Walsingham  also,  have  been 
helping  them  heart  and  soul  for  the  last  two  years  to  collect 
money  for  Humphrey  and  Adrian  Gilbert's  great  adventures  to 
the  North- West,  on  one  of  which  Carlile  was  indeed  to  have 
sailed  himself,  but  did  not  go  after  all ;  I  never  could  discover 
for  what  reason. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  table  is  a  group,  scarcely  less 
interesting.  Martin  Frobisher  and  John  Davis,  the  pioneers 
of  the  North-West  passage,  are  talking  with  Alderman  Sander- 
son, the  great  geographer  and  "setter  forth  of  globes;"  with 
Mr.  Towerson,  Sir  Gilbert  Peckham,  our  old  acquaintance 
Captain  John  Winter,  and  last,  but  not  least,  with  Philip 
Sidney  himself,  who,  with  his  accustomed  courtesy,  has  given 
up  his  rightful  place  toward  the  head  of  the  table  that  he  may 
have  a  knot  of  virtuosi  all  to  himself;  and  has  brought  with 
him,  of  course,  his  two  especial  intimates,  Mr.  Edward  Dyer 
and  Mr.  Francis  Leigh.  They  too  are  talking  of  the  North- 
West  passage :  and  Sidney  is  lamenting  that  he  is  tied  to 
diplomacy  and  courts,  and  expressing  his  envy  of  old  Martin 
Frobisher  in  all  sorts  of  pretty  compliments;  to  which  the 
other  replies  that, 

"  It's  all  very  fine  to  talk  of  here,  a  sailing  on  dry  land 
with  a  good  glass  of  wine  before  you ;  but  you'd  find  it  another 
guess  sort  of  business,  knocking  about  among  the  icebergs  with 
your  beard  frozen  fast  to  your  ruff,  Sir  Philip,  specially  if  you 
were  a  bit  squeamish  about  the  stomach." 

"  That  were  a  slight  matter  to  endure,  my  dear  sir,  if  by  it 
I  could  win  the  honour  which  her  Majesty  bestowed  on  you, 
when  her  own  ivory  hand  waved  a  farewell  'kerchief  to  your 
ship  from  the  windows  of  Greenwich  Palace." 

"Well,  sir,  folks  say  you  have  no  reason  to  complain  of 
lack  of  favours,  as  you  have  no  reason  to  deserve  lack ;  and  if 
you  can  get  them  by  staying  ashore,  don't  you  go  to  sea  to  look 
for  more,  say  I.  Eh,  Master  Towerson  ?" 

Towerson's  grey  beard,  whicli  has  stood  many  a  foreign 


302  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE        [CHAP.  xvi. 

voyage,  both  fair  and  foul,  wags  grim  assent.  But  at  this 
moment  a  waiter  enters,  and — 

"  Please  my  Lord  Mayor's  Worship,  there  is  a  tall  gentle- 
man outside,  would  speak  with  the  Right  Honourable  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh." 

"  Show  him  in,  man.     Sir  Walter's  friends  are  ours." 

Amyas  enters,  and  stands  hesitating  in  the  doorway. 

"Captain  Leigh  !"  cry  half-a-dozen  voices. 

"Why  did  you  not  walk  in,  sir?"  says  Osborne.  "You 
should  know  your  way  well  enough  between  these  decks." 

"  Well  enough,  my  lords  and  gentlemen.  But  Sir  Walter 
— you  will  excuse  me," — and  he  gave  Raleigh  a  look  which 
was  enough  for  his  quick  wit.  Turning  pale  as  death,  he  rose, 
and  followed  Amyas  into  an  adjoining  cabin.  They  were  five 
minutes  together ;  and  then  Amyas  came  out  alone. 

In  few  words  he  told  the  company  the  sad  story  which  we 
already  know.  Ere  it  was  ended,  noble  tears  were  glistening 
on  some  of  those  stern  faces. 

"The  old  Egyptians,"  said  Sir  Edward  Osborne,  "when 
they  banqueted,  set  a  corpse  among  their  guests,  for  a  memo- 
rial of  human  vanity.  Have  we  forgotten  God  and  our  own 
weakness  in  this  our  feast,  that  He  Himself  has  sent  us  thus 
a  message  from  the  dead  ?" 

"  Nay,  my  Lord  Mayor,"  said  Sidney,  "  not  from  the  dead, 
but  from  the  realm  of  everlasting  life." 

"Amen  !"  answered  Osborne.  "  But,  gentlemen,  our  feast 
is  at  an  end.  There  are  those  here  who  would  drink  on  merrily, 
as  brave  men  should,  in  spite  of  the  private  losses  of  which 
they  have  just  had  news ;  but  none  here  who  can  drink  with 
the  loss  of  so  great  a  man  still  ringing  in  his  ears." 

It  was  true.  Though  many  of  the  guests  had  suffered 
severely  by  the  failure  of  the  expedition,  they  had  utterly 
forgotten  that  fact  in  the  awful  news  of  Sir  Humphrey's  death ; 
and  the  feast  broke  up  sadly  and  hurriedly,  while  each  man 
asked  his  neighbour,  "  What  will  the  queen  say  ?"  . 

Raleigh  re-entered  in  a  few  minutes,  but  was  silent,  and 
pressing  many  an  honest  hand  as  he  passed,  went  out  to  call  a 
wherry,  beckoning  Amyas  to  follow  him.  Sidney,  Cumberland, 
and  Frank  went  with  them  in  another  boat,  leaving  the  two  to 
talk  over  the  sad  details. 

They  disembarked  at  Whitehall-stairs ;  Raleigh,  Sidney, 
and  Cumberland  went  to  the  palace ;  and  the  two  brothers  to 
their  mother's  lodgings. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  303 

Ainyas  had  prepared  his  speech  to  Frank  about  Rose  Sal- 
terne,  but  now  that  it  was  come  to  the  point,  he  had  not  courage 
to  begin,  and  longed  that  Frank  would  open  the  matter.  Frank, 
too,  shrank  from  what  he  knew  must  come,  and  all  the  more 
because  he  was  ignorant  that  Amyas  had  been  to  Bideford,  or 
knew  aught  of  the  Rose's  disappearance. 

So  they  went  upstairs ;  and  it  was  a  relief  to  both  of  them 
to  find  that  their  mother  was  at  the  Abbey ;  for  it  was  for  her 
sake  that  both  dreaded  what  was  coming.  So  they  went  and 
stood  in  the  bay-window  which  looked  out  upon  the  river,  and 
talked  of  things  indifferent,  and  looked  earnestly  at  each  other's 
faces  by  the  fading  light,  for  it  was  now  three  years  since  they 
had  met. 

Years  and  events  had  deepened  the  contrast  between  the 
two  brothers ;  and  Frank  smiled  with  affectionate  pride  as  he 
looked  up  in  Amyas's  face,  and  saw  that  he  was  no  longer  merely 
the  rollicking  handy  sailor-lad,  but  the  self-confident  and  stately 
warrior,  showing  in  every  look  and  gesture 

"  The  reason  firm,  the  temperate  will, 
Endurance,  foresight,  strength,  and  skill," 

worthy  of  one  whose  education  had  been  begun  by  such  men  as 
Drake  and  Grenvile,  and  finished  by  such  as  Raleigh  and  Gilbert. 
His  long  locks  were  now  cropped  close  to  the  head ;  but  as  a 
set-off,  the  lips  and  chin  were  covered  with  rich  golden  beard ; 
his  face  was  browned  by  a  thousand  suns  and  storms ;  a  long 
scar,  the  trophy  of  some  Irish  fight,  crossed  his  right  temple; 
his  huge  figure  had  gained  breadth  in  proportion  to  its  height ; 
and  his  hand,  as  it  lay  upon  the  window-sill,  was  hard  and 
massive  as  a  smith's.  Frank  laid  his  own  upon  it,  and  sighed ; 
and  Amyas  looked  down,  and  started  at  the  contrast  between 
the  two — so  slender,  bloodless,  all  but  transparent,  were  the 
delicate  fingers  of  the  courtier.  Amyas  looked  anxiously  into 
his  brother's  face.  It  was  changed,  indeed,  since  they  last  met. 
The  brilliant  red  was  still  on  either  cheek,  but  the  white  had 
become  dull  and  opaque ;  the  lips  were  pale,  the  features 
sharpened ;  the  eyes  glittered  with  unnatural  fire :  and  when 
Frank  told  Amyas  that  he  looked  aged,  Amyas  could  not  help 
thinking  that  the  remark  was  far  more  true  of  the  speaker 
himself. 

Trying  to  shut  his  eyes  to  the  palpable  truth,  he  went  on 
with  his  chat,  asking  the  names  of  one  building  after  another. 

"And  so  this  is  old  Father  Thames,  with  his  bank  of 
palaces'!" 


304  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE       [CHAP.  xvi. 

"  Yes.  His  banks  are  stately  enough ;  yet,  you  see,  he  can- 
not stay  to  look  at  them.  He  hurries  down  to  the  sea ;  and 
the  sea  into  the  ocean ;  and  the  ocean  Westward-ho,  for  ever. 
All  things  move  Westward-ho.  Perhaps  we  may  move  that 
way  ourselves  some  day,  Amyas." 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  that  strange  talk  V 

"Only  that  the  ocean  follows  the  primum  mobile  of  the 
heavens,  and  flows  for  ever  from  East  to  West.  Is  there  any- 
thing so  strange  in  my  thinking  of  that,  when  I  am  just  come 
from  a  party  where  we  have  been  drinking  success  to  West- 
ward-ho r 

"  And  much  good  has  come  of  it !  I  have  lost  the  best 
friend  and  the  noblest  captain  upon  earth,  not  to  mention  all  my 
little  earnings,  in  that  same  confounded  gulf  of  Westward-ho." 

"  Yes,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert's  star  has  set  in  the  West — 
why  not  ?  Sun,  moon,  and  planets  sink  into  the  West :  why 
not  the  meteors  of  this  lower  world  ?  why  not  a  will-o'-the-wisp 
like  me,  Amyas  1" 

"  God  forbid,  Frank  !" 

"  Why,  then  1  Is  not  the  West  the  land  of  peace,  and  the 
land  of  dreams  ?  Do  not  our  hearts  tell  us  so  each  time  we 
look  upon  the  setting  sun,  and  long  to  float  away  with  him  upon 
the  'golden-cushioned  clouds  ?  They  bury  men  with  their  faces 
to  the  East.  I  should  rather  have  mine  turned  to  the  West, 
Amyas,  when  I  die ;  for  I  cannot  but  think  it  some  divine  in- 
stinct which  made  the  ancient  poets  guess  that  Elysium  lay 
beneath  the  setting  sun.  It  is  bound  up  in  the  heart  of  man, 
that  longing  for  the  West.  I  complain  of  no  one  for  fleeing 
away  thither  beyond  the  utmost  sea,  as  David  wished  to  flee, 
and  be  at  peace." 

"Complain  of  no  one  for  fleeing  thither?"  asked  Amyas. 
"  That  is  more  than  I  do." 

Frank  looked  inquiringly  at  him ;  and  then — 

"  No.  If  I  had  complained  of  any  one,  it  would  have 
been  of  you  just  now,  for  seeming  to  be  tired  of  going  West- 
ward-ho." 

"Do  you  wish  me  to  go,  then?" 

"God  knows,"  said  Frank,  after  a  moment's  pause.  "But 
I  must  tell  you  now,  I  suppose,  once  and  for  all.  That  has 
happened  at  Bideford  which " 

"  Spare  us  both,  Frank ;  I  know  all.  I  came  through  Bide- 
ford on  my  way  hither ;  and  came  hither  not  merely  to  see  you 
and  my  mother,  but  to  ask  your  advice  and  her  permission." 


< -H A r.  XVI.]       OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  305 

"True  heart!  noble  heart!"  cried  Frank.  "I  knew  you 
would  be  staunch  !" 

"  Westward-ho  it  is,  then  V 

"  Can  we  escape  ?" 

"  We  ?" 

"  Amyas,  does  not  that  which  binds  you  bind  me  1" 

Amyas  started  back,  and  held  Frank  by  the  shoulders  at 
arm's  length  ;  as  he  did  so,  he  could  feel  through,  that  his 
brother's  arms  were  but  skin  and  bone. 

"  You  1     Dearest  man,  a  month  of  it  would  kill  you  !" 

Frank  smiled,  and  tossed  his  head  on  one  side  in  his  pretty 
way. 

"  I  belong  to  the  school  of  Thales,  who  held  that  the  ocean 
is  the  mother  of  all  life ;  and  feel  no  more  repugnance  at  return- 
ing to  her  bosom  again  than  Humphrey  Gilbert  did." 

"But,  Frank,— my  mother?" 

"  My  mother  knows  all ;  and  would  not  have  us  unworthy 
of  her." 

"  Impossible  !     She  will  never  give  you  up  !" 

"All  things  are  possible  to  them  that  believe  in  God,  my 
brother ;  and  she  believes.  But,  indeed,  Doctor  Dee,  the  wise 
man,  gave  her  but  this  summer  I  know  not  what  of  prognostics 
and  diagnostics  concerning  me.  I  am  born,  it  seems,  under  a 
cold  and  watery  planet,  and  need,  if  I  am  to  be  long  lived,  to 
go  nearer  to  the  vivifying  heat  of  the  sun,  and  there  bask  out 
my  little  life,  like  fly  on  wall.  To  tell  truth,  he  has  bidden 
me  spend  no  more  winters  here  in  the  East ;  but  return  to  our 
native  sea-breezes,  there  to  warm  my  frozen  lungs  ;  and  has  so 
filled  my  mother's  fancy  with  stories  of  sick  men,  who  were 
given  up  for  lost  in  Germany  and  France,  and  yet  renewed  their 
youth,  like  any  serpent  or  eagle,  by  going  to  Italy,  Spain,  and 
the  Canaries,  that  she  herself  will  be  more  ready  to  let  me  go 
than  I  to  leave  her  all  alone.  And  yet  I  must  go,  Amyas. 
It  is  not  merely  that  my  heart  pants,  as  Sidney's  does,  as  every 
gallant's  ought,  to  make  one  of  your  noble  choir  of  Argonauts, 
who  are  now  replenishing  the  earth  and  subduing  it  for  God 
and  for  the  queen ;  it  is  not  merely,  Amyas,  that  love  calls 
me — love  tyrannous  and  uncontrollable,  strengthened  by  ab- 
sence, and  deepened  by  despair;  but  honour,  Amyas — my 

oath " 

And  he  paused  for  lack  of  breath,  and  bursting  into  a  violent 
fit  of  coughing,  leaned  on  his  brother's  shoulder,  while  Amyas 
cried, 


306  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE        [CHAP.  xvi. 

"  Fools,  fools  that  we  were — -that  I  was,  I  mean — to  take 
that  fantastical  vow  !" 

"Not  so,"  answered  a  gentle  voice  from  behind:  "you 
vowed  for  the  sake  of  peace  on  earth,  and  goodwill  toward 
men,  and  '  Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  for  they  shall  be  called 
the  children  of  God.'  No,  my  sons,  be  sure  that  such  self- 
sacrifice  as  you  have  shown  will  meet  its  full  reward  at  the 
hand  of  Him  who  sacrificed  Himself  for  you." 

"  Oh,  mother!  mother!"  said  Amyas,  "and  do  you  not  hate 
the  very  sight  of  me — come  here  to  take  away  your  first-born  1" 

"My  boy,  God  takes  him,  and  not  you.  And  if  I  dare 
believe  in  such  predictions,  Doctor  Dee  assured  me  that  some 
exceeding  honour  awaited  you  both  in  the  West,  to  each  of  you 
according  to  your  deserts." 

"  Ah  !"  said  Amyas.  "  My  blessing,  I  suppose,  will  be  like 
Esau's,  to  live  by  my  sword ;  while  Jacob  here,  the  spiritual 
man,  inherits  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  an  angel's  crown." 

"  Be  it  what  it  may,  it  will  surely  be  a  blessing,  as  long  as 
you  are  such,  my  children,  as  you  have  been.  At  least  my 
Frank  will  be  safe  from  the  intrigues  of  court,  and  the  tempta- 
tions of  the  world.  Would  that  I  too  could  go  with  you,  and 
share  in  your  glory  !  Come,  now,"  said  she,  laying  her  head 
upon  Amyas's  breast,  and  looking  up  into  his  face  with  one  of 
her  most  winning  smiles,  "  I  have  heard  of  heroic  mothers  ere 
now  who  went  forth  with  their  sons  to  battle,  and  cheered 
them  on  to  victory.  Why  should  I  not  go  with  you  on  a  more 
peaceful  errand  ?  I  could  nurse  the  sick,  if  there  were  any ;  I 
could  perhaps  have  speech  of  that  poor  girl,  and  win  her  back 
more  easily  than  you.  She  might  listen  to  words  from  a 
woman — a  woman,  too,  who  has  loved — which  she  could  not 
hear  from  men.  At  least  I  could  mend  and  wash  for  you.  I 
suppose  it  is  as  easy  to  play  the  good  housewife  afloat  as  on 
shore1?  Come,  now  !" 

Amyas  looked  from  one  to  the  other. 

"  God  only  knows  which  of  the  two  is  less  fit  to  go. 
Mother  !  mother  !  you  know  not  what  you  ask.  Frank  ! 
Frank  !  I  do  not  want  you  with  me.  This  is  a  sterner  matter 
than  either  of  you  fancy  it  to  be ;  one  that  must  be  worked 
out,  not  with  kind  words,  but  with  sharp  shot  and  cold  steel." 

"  How  ?"  cried  both  together,  aghast. 

"  I  must  pay  my  men,  and  pay  my  fellow-adventurers  ;  and 
I  must  pay  them  with  Spanish  gold.  And  what  is  more,  I 
cannot,  as  a  loyal  subject  of  the  queen's,  go  to  the  Spanish 


CHAP.  xvi.J  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  307 

Main  with  a  clear  conscience  on  my  own  private  quarrel,  unless 
I  do  all  the  harm  that  my  hand  finds  to  do,  by  day  and  night, 
to  her  enemies,  and  the  enemies  of  God." 

"What  nobler  knight-errantry?"  said  Frank  cheerfully; 
but  Mrs.  Leigh  shuddered. 

"What!  Frank  tool"  she  said,  half  to  herself;  but  her 
sons  knew  what  she  meant.  Amyas's  warlike  life,  honourable 
and  righteous  as  she  knew  it  to  be,  she  had  borne  as  a  sad 
necessity :  but  that  Frank  as  well  should  become  "  a  man  of 
blood,"  was  more  than  her  gentle  heart  could  face  at  first  sight. 
That  one  youthful  duel  of  his  he  had  carefully  concealed  from 
her,  knowing  her  feeling  on  such  matters.  And  it  seemed  too 
dreadful  to  her  to  associate  that  gentle  spirit  with  all  the  fero- 
cities and  the  carnage  of  a  battlefield.  "  And  yet,"  said  she 
to  herself,  "  is  this  but  another  of  the  self-willed  idols  which  I 
must  renounce  one  by  one1?"  And  then,  catching  at  a  last 
hope,  she  answered — 

"  Frank  must  at  least  ask  the  queen's  leave  to  go ;  and  If 
she  permits,  how  can  I  gainsay  her  wisdom  ?" 

And  so  the  conversation  dropped,  sadly  enough. 

But  uow  began  a  fresh  perplexity  in  Frank's  soul,  which 
amused  Amyas  at  first,  when  it  seemed  merely  jest,  but  nettled 
him  a  good  deal  when  he  found  it  earnest.  For  Frank  looked 
forward  to  asking  the  queen's  permission  for  his  voyage  with 
the  most  abject  despondency  and  terror.  Two  or  three  days 
passed  before  he  could  make  up  his  mind  to  ask  for  an  inter- 
view with  her;  and  he  spent  the  time  in  making  as  much 
interest  with  Leicester,  Hatton,  and  Sidney,  as  if  he  were 
about  to  sue  for  a  reprieve  from  the  scaffold. 

So  said  Arnyas,  remarking,  further,  that  the  queen  could 
not  cut  his  head  off  for  wanting  to  go  to  sea. 

"But  what  axe  so  sharp  as  her  frown1?"  said  Frank  in 
most  lugubrious  tone. 

Amyas  began  to  whistle  in  a  very  rude  way. 

"  Ah,  my  brother,  you  cannot  comprehend  the  pain  of  part- 
ing from  her." 

"  No,  I  can't.  I  would  die  for  the  least  hair  of  her  royal 
head,  God  bless  it !  but  I  could  live  very  well  from  now  till 
Doomsday  without  ever  setting  eyes  on  the  said  head." 

"Plato's  Troglodytes  regretted  not  that  sunlight  which 
they  had  never  beheld." 

Amyas,  not  understanding  this  recondite  conceit,  made  no 
answer  to  it,  and  there  the  matter  ended  for  the  time.  But  at 


308  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE      [CHAP.  xvi. 

last  Frank  obtained  his  audience ;  and  after  a  couple  of  hours' 
absence  returned  quite  pale  and  exhausted. 

"  Thank  Heaven,  it  is  over  !  She  was  very  angry  at  first — 
what  else  could  she  be  ? — and  upbraided  me  with  having  set 
ray  love  so  low.  I  could  only  answer,  that  my  fatal  fault  was 
committed  before  the  sight  of  her  had  taught  me  what  was 
supremely  lovely,  and  only  worthy  of  admiration.  Then  she 
accused  me  of  disloyalty  in  having  taken  an  oath  which  bound 
me  to  the  service  of  another  than  her.  I  confessed  my  sin  with 
tears,  and  when  she  threatened  punishment,  pleaded  that  the 
offence  had  avenged  itself  heavily  already, — for  what  worse 
punishment  than  exile  from  the  sunlight  of  her  presence,  into 
the  outer  darkness  which  reigns  where  she  is  not  ?  Then  she 
was  pleased  to  ask  me,  how  I  could  dare,  as  her  sworn  servant, 
to  desert  her  side  in  such  dangerous  times  as  these ;  and  asked 
me  how  I  should  reconcile  it  to  my  conscience,  if  on  my  return 
I  found  her  dead  by  the  assassin's  knife?  At  which  most 
pathetic  demand  I  could  only  throw  myself  at  once  on  my  own 
knees  and  her  mercy,  and  so  awaited  my  sentence.  Whereon, 
with  that  angelic  pity  which  alone  makes  her  awfulness  en- 
durable, she  turned  to  Hatton  and  asked,  '  What  say  you, 
Mouton  1  Is  he  humbled  sufficiently?'  and  so  dismissed  me." 

"  Heigh  ho  ! "  yawned  Amyas ; 

"  If  the  bridge  had  been  stronger, 
My  tale  had  been  longer. " 

"Amyas!  Amyas!"  quoth  Frank  solemnly,  "you  know 
not  what  power  over  the  soul  has  the  native  and  God-given 
majesty  of  royalty  (awful  enough  in  itself),  when  to  it  is  super- 
added  the  wisdom  of  the  sage,  and  therewithal  the  tenderness 
of  the  woman.  Had  I  my  will,  there  should  be  in  every  realm 
not  a  salique,  but  an  anti-salique  law :  whereby  no  kings,  but 
only  queens  should  rule  mankind.  Then  would  weakness  and 
not  power  be  to  man  the  symbol  of  divinity ;  love,  and  not 
cunning,  would  be  the  arbiter  of  every  cause;  and  chivalry, 
not  fear,  the  spring  of  all  obedience." 

"  Humph !  There's  some  sense  in  that,"  quoth  Amyas. 
"  I'd  run  a  mile  for  a  woman  when  I  would  not  walk  a  yard 
for  a  man ;  and — Who  is  this  our  mother  is  bringing  in  ?  The 
handsomest  fellow  I  ever  saw  in  my  life  ! " 

Amyas  was  not  far  wrong;  for  Mrs.  Leigh's  companion 
was  none  other  than  Mr.  Secretary,  Arnyas's  Smerwick  Fort 
acquaintance;  alias  Colin  Clout,  alias  Immeri to,  alias  Edmund 
Spenser.  Some  half-jesting  conversation  had  seemingly  been 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  309 

passing  between  the  poet  and  the  saint ;  for  as  they  came  in 
she  said  with  a  smile  (which  was  somewhat  of  a  forced  one) — 

"  Well,  my  dear  sons,  you  are  sure  of  immortality,  at  least 
on  earth ;  for  Mr.  Spenser  has  been  vowing  to  me  to  give  your 
adventure  a  whole  canto  to  itself  in  his  Fairy  Queen." 

"  And  you  no  less,  madam,"  said  Spenser.  "  What  were 
the  story  of  the  Gracchi  worth  without  the  figure  of  Cornelia  1 
If  I  honour  the  fruit,  I  must  not  forget  the  stem  which  bears 
it.  Frank,  I  congratulate  you." 

"  Then  you  know  the  result  of  my  interview,  mother1!" 

"  I  know  everything,  and  am  content,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"Mrs.  Leigh  has  reason  to  be  content,"  said  Spenser, 
"  with  that  which  is  but  her  own  likeness." 

"Spare  your  flattery  to  an  old  woman,  Mr.  Spenser. 
When,  pray,  did  I  (with  a  most  loving  look  at  Frank)  refuse 
knighthood  for  duty's  sake  1 " 

"  Knighthood  1 "  cried  Amyas.  "  You  never  told  me  that, 
Frank ! " 

"That  may  well  be,  Captain  Leigh,"  said  Spenser;  "but 
believe  me,  her  Majesty  (so  Hatton  assures  me)  told  him  this 
day,  no  less  than  that  by  going  on  this  quest  he  deprived  him- 
self of  that  highest  earthly  honour,  which  crowned  heads  are 
fain  to  seek  from  their  own  subjects." 

Spenser  did  not  exaggerate.  Knighthood  was  then  the 
prize  of  merit  only ;  and  one  so  valuable,  that  Elizabeth  herself 
said,  when  asked  why  she  did  not  bestow  a  peerage  upon  some 
favourite,  that  having  already  knighted  him,  she  had  nothing 
better  to  bestow.  It  remained  for  young  Essex  to  begin  the 
degradation  of  the  order  in  his  hapless  Irish  campaign,  and  for 
James  to  complete  that  degradation  by  his  novel  method  of 
raising  money  by  the  sale  of  baronetcies;  a  new  order  of 
hereditary  knighthood  which  was  the  laughing-stock  of  the 
day,  and  which  (however  venerable  it  may  have  since  become) 
reflects  anything  but  honour  upon  its  first  possessors. 

"  I  owe  you  no  thanks,  Colin,"  said  Frank,  "for  having 
broached  my  secret :  but  I  have  lost  nothing  after  all.  There 
is  still  an  order  of  knighthood  in  which  I  may  win  my  spurs, 
even  though  her  Majesty  refuse  me  the  accolade." 

"What,  then  ?  you  will  not  take  it  from  a  foreign  prince?" 

Frank  smiled. 

"  Have  you  never  read  of  that  knighthood  which  is  eternal 
in  the  heavens,  and  of  those  true  cavaliers  whom  John  saw  in 
Patmos,  riding  on  white  horses,  clothed  in  fine  linen,  white  and 


310  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE        [CHAP.  XVI. 

clean,  knights-errant  in  the  everlasting  war  against  the  False 
Prophet  and  the  Beast  ?  Let  me  but  become  worthy  of  their 
ranks  hereafter,  what  matter  whether  I  be  called  Sir  Frank  on 
earth  ? " 

"  My  son,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh,  "  remember  that  they  follow 
One  whose  vesture  is  dipped,  not  in  the  blood  of  His  enemies, 
but  in  His  own." 

"  I  have  remembered  it  for  many  a  day ;  and  remembered, 
too,  that  the  garments  of  the  knights  may  need  the  same  tokens 
as  their  captain's." 

"  Oh,  Frank  !  Frank  !  is  not  His  precious  blood  enough  to 
cleanse  all  sin,  without  the  sacrifice  of  our  own  ? " 

"  We  may  need  no  more  than  His  blood,  mother,  and  yet 
He  may  need  ours,"  said  Frank. 

How  that  conversation  ended  I  know  not,  nor  whether 
Spenser  fulfilled  his  purpose  of  introducing  the  two  brothers 
and  their  mother  into  his  Fairy  Queen.  If  so,  the  manuscripts 
must  have  been  lost  among  those  which  perished  (along  with 
Spenser's  baby)  in  the  sack  of  Kilcolman  by  the  Irish  in  1598. 
But  we  need  hardly  regret  the  loss  of  them ;  for  the  temper 
of  the  Leighs  and  their  mother  is  the  same  which  inspires 
every  canto  of  that  noblest  of  poems;  and  which  inspired, 
too,  hundreds  in  those  noble  days,  when  the  chivalry  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  wedded  to  the  free  thought  and  enterprise  of 
the  new. 

So  mother  and  sons  returned  to  Bideford,  and  set  to  work. 
Frank  mortgaged  a  farm  ;  Will  Gary  did  the  same  (having 
some  land  of  his  own  from  his  mother).  Old  Salterne  grumbled 
at  any  man  save  himself  spending  a  penny  on  the  voyage,  and 
forced  on  the  adventurers  a  good  ship  of  two  hundred  tons 
burden,  and  five  hundred  pounds  toward  fitting  her  out ;  Mrs. 
Leigh  worked  day  and  night  at  clothes  and  comforts  of  every 
kind ;  Amyas  had  nothing  to  give  but  his  time  and  his  brains  : 
but,  as  Salterne  said,  the  rest  would  have  been  of  little  use 
without  them ;  and  day  after  day  he  and  the  old  merchant 
were  on  board  the  ship,  superintending  with  their  own  eyes  the 
fitting  of  every  rope  and  nail.  Gary  went  about  beating  up 
recruits ;  and  made,  with  his  jests  and  his  frankness,  the  best 
of  crimps  :  while  John  Brimblecombe,  beside  himself  with  joy, 
toddled  about  after  him  from  tavern  to  tavern,  and  quay  to 
quay,  exalted  for  the  time  being  (as  Gary  told  him)  into  a 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  311 

second  Peter  the  Hermit ;  and  so  fiercely  did  he  preach  a  cru- 
sade against  the  Spaniards,  through  Bideford  and  Appledore, 
Clovelly  and  Ilfracombe,  that  Amyas  might  have  had  a  hundred 
and  fifty  loose  fellows  in  the  first  fortnight.  But  he  knew 
better  :  still  smarting  from  the  effects  of  a  similar  haste  in  the 
Newfoundland  adventure,  he  had  determined  to  take  none  but 
picked  men ;  and  by  dint  of  labour  he  obtained  them. 

Only  one  scapegrace  did  he  take  into  his  crew,  named 
Parracombe  ;  and  by  that  scapegrace  hangs  a  tale.  He  was  an 
old  schoolfellow  of  his  at  Bideford,  and  son  of  a  merchant  in 
that  town — one  of  those  unlucky  members  who  are  "  nobody's 
enemy  but  their  own" — a  handsome,  idle,  clever  fellow,  who 
used  his  scholarship,  of  which  he  had  picked  up  some  smattering, 
chiefly  to  justify  his  own  escapades,  and  to  string  songs  together. 
Having  drunk  all  that  he  was  worth  at  home,  he  had  in  a  peni- 
tent fit  forsworn  liquor,  and  tormented  Amyas  into  taking  him 
to  sea,  where  he  afterwards  made  as  good  a  sailor  as  any  one 
else,  but  sorely  scandalised  John  Brimblecombe  by  all  manner 
of  heretical  arguments,  half  Anacreontic,  half  smacking  of  the 
rather  loose  doctrines  of  that  "  Family  of  Love "  which  tor- 
mented the  orthodoxy  and  morality  of  more  than  one  Bishop  of 
Exeter.  Poor  Will  Parracombe  !  he  was  born  a  few  centuries 
too  early.  Had  he  but  lived  now,  he  might  have  published  a 
volume  or  two  of  poetry,  and  then  settled  down  on  the  staff  of 
a  newspaper.  Had  he  even  lived  thirty  years  later  than  he 
did,  he  might  have  written  frantic  tragedies  or  filthy  comedies 
for  the  edification  of  James's  profligate  metropolis,  and  roystered 
it  in  taverns  with  Marlowe,  to  die  as  Marlowe  did,  by  a  foot- 
man's sword  in  a  drunken  brawl.  But  in  those  stern  days 
such  weak  and  hysterical  spirits  had  no  fair  vent  for  their 
"  humours,"  save  in  being  reconciled  to  the  Church  of  Rome, 
and  plotting  with  Jesuits  to  assassinate  the  Queen,  as  Parry, 
and  Somerville,  and  many  other  madmen,  did. 

So,  at  least,  some  Jesuit  or  other  seems  to  have  thought, 
shortly  after  Amyas  had  agreed  to  give  the  spendthrift  a  berth 
on  board.  For  one  day  Amyas,  going  down  to  Appledore  about 
his  business;  was  called  into  the  little  "  Mariners'  Rest "  inn, 
to  extract  therefrom  poor  Will  Parracombe,  who  (in  spite  of  his 
vow)  was  drunk  and  outrageous,  and  had  vowed  the  death  of 
the  landlady  and  all  her  kin.  So  Amyas  fetched  him  out  by 
the  collar,  and  walked  him  home  thereby  to  Bideford  ;  during 
which  walk  Will  told  him  a  long  and  confused  story ;  how  :m 
Egyptian  rogue  had  met  him  that  morning  on  the  sands  by 


312  THE  MOST  CHIVALROUS  ADVENTURE       [CHAP.  xvr. 

Boathythe,  offered  to  tell  his  fortune,  and  prophesied  to  him 
great  wealth  and  honour,  but  not  from  the  Queen  of  England ; 
had  coaxed  him  to  the  Mariners'  Rest,  and  gambled  with  him 
for  liquor,  at  which  it  seemed  Will  always  won,  and  of  course 
drank  his  winnings  on  the  spot ;  whereon  the  Egyptian  began 
asking  him  all  sorts  of  questions  about  the  projected  voyage  of 
the  Rose — a  good  many  of  which,  Will  confessed,  he  had 
answered  before  he  saw  the  fellow's  drift ;  after  which  the 
Egyptian  had  offered  him  a  vast  sum  of  money  to  do  some 
desperate  villany ;  but  whether  it  was  to  murder  Amyas,  or  the 
queen,  whether  to  bore  a  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the  good  ship 
Rose,  or  to  set  the  Torridge  on  fire  by  art-magic,  he  was  too 
drunk  to  recollect  exactly.  Whereon  Amyas  treated  three- 
quarters  of  the  story  as  a  tipsy  dream,  and  contented  himself 
by  getting  a  warrant  against  the  landlady  for  harbouring 
"  Egyptians,"  which  was  then  a  heavy  offence — a  gipsy  dis- 
guise being  a  favourite  one  with  Jesuits  and  their  emissaries. 
She  of  course  denied  that  any  gipsy  had  been  there ;  and  though 
there  were  some  who  thought  they  had  seen  such  a  man  come 
in,  none  had  seen  him  go  out  again.  On  which  Amyas  took 
occasion  to  ask,  what  had  become  of  the  suspicious  Popish  ostler 
whom  he  had  seen  at  the  Mariners'  Rest  three  years  before ; 
and  discovered,  to  his  surprise,  that  the  said  ostler  had  vanished 
from  the  very  day  of  Don  Guzman's  departure  from  Bideford. 
There  was  evidently  a  mystery  somewhere  :  but  nothing  could 
be  proved ;  the  landlady  was  dismissed  with  a  reprimand,  and 
Amyas  soon  forgot  the  whole  matter,  after  rating  Parracombe 
soundly.  After  all,  he  could  not  have  told  the  gipsy  (if  one 
existed)  anything  important ;  for  the  special  destination  of  the 
voyage  (as  was  the  custom  in  those  times,  for  fear  of  Jesuits 
playing  into  the  hands  of  Spain)  had  been  carefully  kept  secret 
among  the  adventurers  themselves,  and,  except  Yeo  and  Drew, 
none  of  the  men  had  any  suspicion  that  La  Guayra  was  to  be 
their  aim. 

And  Salvation  Yeo  ? 

Salvation  was  almost  wild  for  a  few  days,  at  the  sudden 
prospect  of  going  in  search  of  his  little  maid,  and  of  fighting 
Spaniards  once  more  before  he  died.  I  will  not  quote  the 
texts  out  of  Isaiah  and  the  Psalms  with  which  his  mouth  was 
filled  from  morning  to  night,  for  fear  of  seeming  irreverent  in 
the  eyes  of  a  generation  which  does  not  believe,  as  Yeo  believed, 
that  fighting  the  Spaniards  was  as  really  fighting  in  God's 
battle  against  evil  as  were  the  wars  of  Joshua  or  David.  But 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.  313 

the  old  man  had  his  practical  hint  too,  and  entreated  to  be  sent 
back  to  Plymouth  to  look  for  men. 

"There's  many  a  man  of  the  old  Pelican,  sir,  and  of 
Captain  Hawkins'  Minion,  that  knows  the  Indies  as  well  as  I, 
and  longs  to  be  back  again.  There's  Drew,  sir,  that  we  left 
behind  (and  no  better  sailing-master  for  us  in  the  West  country, 
and  has  accounts  against  the  Spaniards,  too ;  for  it  was  his 
brother,  the  Barnstaple  man,  that  was  factor  aboard  of  poor 
Mr.  Andrew  Barker,  and  got  clapt  into  the  Inquisition  at  the 
Canaries)  ;  you  promised  him,  sir,  that  night  he  stood  by  you 
on  board  the  Raleigh  :  and  if  you'll  be  as  good  as  your  word, 
he'll  be  as  good  as  his ;  and  bring  a  score  more  brave  fellows 
with  him." 

So  off  went  Yeo  to  Plymouth,  and  returned  with  Drew  and 
a  score  of  old  never-strikes.  One  look  at  their  visages,  as  Yeo 
proudly  ushered  them  into  the  Ship  Tavern,  showed  Amyas 
that  they  were  of  the  metal  which  he  wanted,  and  that,  with 
the  four  North -Devon  men  who  had  gone  round  the  world 
with  him  in  the  Pelican  (who  all  joined  in  the  first  week),  he 
had  a  reserve-force  on  which  he  could  depend  in  utter  need ; 
and  that  utter  need  might  come  he  knew  as  well  as  any. 

Nor  was  this  all  which  Yeo  had  brought ;  for  he  had  with 
him  a  letter  from  Sir  Francis  Drake,  full  of  regrets  that  he 
had  not  seen  "  his  dear  lad "  as  he  went  through  Plymouth. 
"  But  indeed  I  was  up  to  Dartmoor,  surveying  with  cross-staff 
and  chain,  over  my  knees  in  bog  for  a  three  weeks  or  more. 
For  I  have  a  project  to  bring  down  a  leat  of  fair  water  from 
the  hill-tops  right  into  Plymouth  town,  cutting  off  the  heads 
of  Tavy,  Meavy,  Wallcomb,  and  West  Dart,  and  thereby  purg- 
ing Plymouth  harbour  from  the  silt  of  the  mines  whereby  it 
has  been  choked  of  late  years,  and  giving  pure  drink  not  only 
to  the  townsmen,  but  to  the  fleets  of  the  queen's  Majesty ; 
which  if  I  do,  I  shall  both  make  some  poor  return  to  God  for 
all  His  unspeakable  mercies,  and  erect  unto  myself  a  monu- 
ment better  than  of  brass  or  marble,  not  merely  honourable  to 
me,  but  useful  to  my  countrymen."1  Whereon  Frank  sent 
Drake  a  pretty  epigram,  comparing  Drake's  projected  leat  to 
that  river  of  eternal  life  whereof  the  just  would  drink  through- 
out eternity,  and  quoting  (after  the  fashion  of  those  days) 
John  vii.  38 ;  while  Amyas  took  more  heed  of  a  practical 
appendage  to  the  same  letter,  which  was  a  list  of  hints  scrawled 

1  This  noble  monument  of  Drake's  piety  and  public  spirit  still  remains 
in  full  use. 


314     THE  ADVENTURE  OF  THE  GOOD  SHIP  ROSE.     {CHAP.  XVI. 

for  his  use  by  Captain  John  Hawkins  himself,  on  all  sea 
matters,  from  the  mounting  of  ordnance  to  the  use  of  vitriol 
against  the  scurvy,  in  default  of  oranges  and  "limmons;"  all 
which  stood  Amyas  in  good  stead  during  the  ensuing  month, 
while  Frank  grew  more  and  more  proud  of  his  brother,  and 
more  and  more  humble  about  himself. 

For  he  watched  with  astonishment  how  the  simple  sailor, 
without  genius,  scholarship,  or  fancy,  had  gained,  by  plain 
honesty,  patience,  and  common  sense,  a  power  over  the  human 
heart,  and  a  power  over  his  work,  whatsoever  it  might  be, 
which  Frank  could  only  admire  afar  off.  The  men  looked  up 
to  him  as  infallible,  prided  themselves  on  forestalling  his 
wishes,  carried  out  his  slightest  hint,  worked  early  and  late  to 
win  a  smile  from  him;  while  as  for  him,  no  detail  escaped  him, 
no  drudgery  sickened  him,  no  disappointment  angered  him,  till 
on  the  15th  of  November  1583  dropped  down  from  Bideford 
Quay  to  Appledore  Pool  the  tall  ship  Rose,  with  a  hundred 
men  on  board  (for  sailors  packed  close  in  those  days),  beef, 
pork,  biscuit,  and  good  ale  (for  ale  went  to  sea  always  then)  in 
abundance,  four  culverins  on  her  main  deck,  her  poop  and 
forecastle  well  fitted  with  swivels  of  every  size,  and  her  racks 
so  full  of  muskets,  calivers,  long  bows,  pikes  and  swords,  that 
all  agreed  so  well-appointed  a  ship  had  never  sailed  "  out  over 
Bar." 

The  next  day  being  Sunday,  the  whole  crew  received  the 
Communion  together  at  Northam  Church,  amid  a  mighty 
crowd ;  and  then  going  on  board  again,  hove  anchor  and  sailed 
out  over  the  Bar  before  a  soft  east  wind,  to  the  music  of  sacbut, 
fife,  and  drum,  with  discharge  of  all  ordnance,  great  and  small, 
with  cheering  of  young  and  old  from  cliff  and  strand  and  quay, 
and  with  many  a  tearful  prayer  and  blessing  upon  that  gallant 
bark,  and  all  brave  hearts  on  board. 

And  Mrs.  Leigh,  who  had  kissed  her  sons  for  the  last  time 
after  the  Communion  at  the  altar-steps  (and  what  more  fit 
place  for  a  mother's  kiss  ?)  went  to  the  rocky  knoll  outside  the 
churchyard  wall,  and  watched  the  ship  glide  out  between  tire 
yellow  denes,  and  lessen  slowly  hour,  by  hour  into  the  bound- 
less West,  till  her  hull  sank  below  the  dim  horizon,  and  her 
white  sails  faded  away  into  the  grey  Atlantic  mist,  perhaps  for 
ever. 

And  Mrs.  Leigh  gathered  her  cloak"  about  her,  and  bowed 
her  head  and  worshipped ;  and  then  went  home  to  loneliness 
and  prayer. 


CHAP,  XVII.  1  HOW  THEY  CAME  TO  BARBADOS.  315 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

HOW  THEY  CAME  TO  BARBADOS,  AND  FOUND  NO  MEN  THEREIN. 

"  The  sun's  rim  dips  ;  the  stars  rush  out ; 
At  one  stride  comes  the  dark." — COLERIDGE. 

LAND  !  land  !  laud  !  Yes,  there  it  was,  far  away  to  the  south 
and  west,  beside  the  setting  sun,  a  long  blue  bar  between  the 
crimson  sea  and  golden  sky.  Land  at  last,  with  fresh  streams, 
and  cooling  fruits,  and  free  room  for  cramped  and  scurvy- 
weakened  limbs.  And  there,  too,  might  be  gold,  and  gems,  and 
all  the  wealth  of  Ind.  Who  knew  1  Why  not  ?  The  old  world 
of  fact  and  prose  lay  thousands  of  miles  behind  them,  and  before 
them  and  around  them  was  the  realm  of  wonder  and  fable,  of 
boundless  hope  and  possibility.  Sick  men  crawled  up  out  of 
their  stifling  hammocks ;  strong  men  fell  on  their  knees  and 
gave  God  thanks  ;  and  all  eyes  and  hands  were  stretched  eagerly 
toward  the  far  blue  cloud,  fading  as  the  sun  sank  down,  yet 
rising  higher  and  broader  as  the  ship  rushed  on  before  the  rich 
trade-wind,  which  whispered  lovingly  round  brow  and  sail,  "I 
am  the  faithful  friend  of  those  who  dare  !"  "Blow  freshly, 
freshlier  yet,  thou  good  trade- wind,  of  whom  it  is  written  that 
He  makes  the  winds  His  angels,  ministering  breaths  to  the  heirs 
of  His  salvation.  Blow  freshlier  yet,  and  save,  if  not  me  from 
death,  yet  her  from  worse  than  death.  Blow  on,  and  land  me 
at  her  feet,  to  call  the  lost  lamb  home,  and  die  !" 

So  murmured  Frank  to  himself,  as  with  straining  eyes  he 
gazed  upon  that  first  outlier  of  the  New  World  which  held  his 
all.  His  cheeks  were  thin  and  wasted,  and  the  hectic  spot  on 
each  glowed  crimson  in  the  crimson  light  of  the  setting  sun. 
A  few  minutes  more,  and  the  rainbows  of  the  West  were  gone ; 
emerald  and  topaz,  amethyst  and  ruby,  had  faded  into  silver- 
grey;  and  overhead,  through  the  dark  sapphire  depths,  the 
Moon  and  Venus  reigned  above  the  sea. 

"  That  should  be  Barbados,  your  worship,"  said  Drew,  the 
master;  "unless  my  reckoning  is  far  out,  which,  Heaven 
knows,  it  has  no  right  to  be,  after  such  a  passage,  and  God  be 
praised." 

"  Barbados  ?     I  never  heard  of  it." 

"  Very  like,  sir :  but  Yeo  and  I  were  here  with  Captain 
Drake,  and  I  was  here  after,  too,  with  poor  Captain  Barlow  ;  and 


316  HOW  THEY  CAME  TO  BARBADOS,          [CHAP.  XVII. 

there  is  good  harbourage  to  the  south  and  west  of  it,  I  re- 
member." 

"And  neither  Spaniard,  cannibal,  or  other  evil  beast,"  said 
Yeo.  "  A  very  garden  of  the  Lord,  sir,  hid  away  in  the  seas, 
for  an  inheritance  to  those  who  love  Him.  I  heard  Captain 
Drake  talk  of  planting  it,  if  ever  he  had  a  chance." 

"I  recollect  now,"  said  Amyas,  "some  talk  between  him 
and  poor  Sir  Humphrey  about  an  island  here.  Would  God  he 
had  gone  thither  instead  of  to  Newfoundland  !" 

"  Nay,  then,"  said  Yeo,  "  he  is  in  bliss  now  with  the  Lord ; 
and  you  would  not  have  kept  him  from  that,  sir  1" 

"  He  would  have  waited  as  willingly  as  he  went,  if  he 
could  have  served  his  queen  thereby.  But  what  say  you,  my 
masters  1  How  can  we  do  better  than  to  spend  a  few  days  here, 
to  get  our  sick  round,  before  we  make  the  Mam,  and  set  to  our 
work?" 

All  approved  the  counsel  except  Frank,  who  was  silent. 

"  Come,  fellow-adventurer,"  said  Cary,  "  we  must  have  your 
voice  too." 

"To  my  impatience,  Will,"  said  he,  aside  in  a  low  voice, 
"  there  is  but  one  place  on  earth,  and  I  am  all  day  longing  for 
wings  to  fly  thither  :  but  the  counsel  is  right.  I  approve  it." 

So  the  verdict  was  announced,  and  received  with  a  hearty 
cheer  by  the  crew ;  and  long  before  morning  they  had  run  along 
the  southern  shore  of  the  island,  and  were  feeling  their  way 
into  the  bay  where  Bridgetown  now  stands.  All  eyes  were 
eagerly  fixed  on  the  low  wooded  hills  which  slept  in  the  moon- 
light, spangled  by  fire-flies,  with  a  million  dancing  stars ;  all 
nostrils  drank  greedily  the  fragrant  air,  which  swept  from  the 
land,  laden  with  the  scent  of  a  thousand  flowers ;  all  ears  wel- 
comed, as  a  grateful  change  from  the  monotonous  whisper  and 
lap  of  the  water,  the  hum  of  insects,  the  snore  of  the  tree-toads, 
the  plaintive  notes  of  the  shore-fowl,  which  fill  a  tropic  night 
with  noisy  life. 

At  last  she  stopped ;  at  last  the  cable  rattled  through  the 
hawsehole  ;  and  then,  careless  of  the  chance  of  lurking  Spaniard 
or  Carib,  an  instinctive  cheer  burst  from  every  throat.  Poor 
fellows  !  Amyas  had  much  ado  to  prevent  them  going  on  shore 
at  once,  dark  as  it  was,  by  reminding  them  that  it  wanted  but 
two  hours  of  day. 

"  Never  were  two  such  long  hours,"  said  one  young  lad, 
fidgeting  up  and  down. 

"  You  never  were  in  the  Inquisition,"  said  Yeo,  "  or  you'd 


CHAP.  XVII.]  AND  FOUND  NO  MEN  THEREIN.  317 

kiiow  better  how  slow  time  caii  run.  Stand  you  still,  and  give 
God  thanks  you're  where  you  are." 

"  I  say,  Gunner,  be  there  goold  to  that  island  V 

"  Never  heard  of  none ;  and  so  much  the  better  for  it,"  said 
Yeo  drily. 

"  But,  I  say,  Gunner,"  said  a  poor  scurvy-stricken  cripple, 
licking  his  lips,  "  be  there  oranges  and  limmons  there?" 

"  Not  of  my  seeing ;  but  plenty  of  good  fruit  down  to  the 
beach,  thank  the  Lord.  There  comes  the  dawn  at  last." 

Up  flushed  the  rose,  up  rushed  the  sun,  and  the  level  rays 
glittered  on  the  smooth  stems  of  the  palm-trees,  and  threw  rain- 
bows across  the  foam  upon  the  coral-reefs,  and  gilded  lonely  up- 
lands far  away,  where  now  stands  many  a  stately  country-seat 
and  busy  engine-house.  Long  lines  of  pelicans  went  clanging 
out  to  sea ;  the  hum  of  the  insects  hushed,  and  a  thousand  birds 
burst  into  jubilant  song ;  a  thin  blue  mist  crept  upward  toward 
the  inner  downs,  and  vanished,  leaving  them  to  quiver  in  the 
burning  glare ;  the  land-breeze,  which  had  blown  fresh  out  to 
sea  all  night,  died  away  into  glassy  calm,  and  the  tropic  day 
was  begun. 

The  sick  were  lifted  over  the  side,  and  landed  boat-load 
after  boat-load  on  the  beach,  to  stretch  themselves  in  the 
shade  of  the  palms ;  and  in  half-au-hour  the  whole  crew  were 
scattered  on  the  shore,  except  some  dozen  worthy  men,  who 
had  volunteered  to  keep  watch  and  ward  on  board  till  noon. 

And  now  the  first  instinctive  cry  of  nature  was  for  fruit ! 
fruit !  fruit !  The  poor  lame  wretches  crawled  from  place  to 
place  plucking  greedily  the  violet  grapes  of  the  creeping  shore 
vine,  and  staining  their  mouths  and  blistering  their  lips  with 
the  prickly  pears,  in  spite  of  Yeo's  entreaties  and  warnings 
against  the  thorns.  Some  of  the  healthy  began  hewing  down 
cocoa-nut  trees  to  get  at  the  nuts,  doing  little  thereby  but 
blunt  their  hatchets ;  till  Yeo  and  Drew,  having  mustered 
half-a-dozen  reasonable  men,  went  off  inland,  and  returned  in 
an  hour  laden  with  the  dainties  of  that  primeval  orchard, — 
with  acid  junipa-apples,  luscious  guavas,  and  crowned  ananas, 
queen  of  all  the  fruits,  which  they  had  found  by  hundreds  on 
the  broiling  ledges  of  the  low  tufa-cliffs ;  and  then  all,  sitting 
on  the  sandy  turf,  defiant  of  galliwasps  and  jackspaniards,  and 
all  the  weapons  of  the  insect  host,  partook  of  the  equal 
banquet,  while  old  blue  land-crabs  sat  in  their  house-doors  and 
brandished  their  fists  in  defiance  at  the  invaders,  and  solemn 
cranes  stood  in  the  water  on  the  shoals  with  their  heads  on 


318  HOW  THEY  CAME  TO  BARBADOS,          [cHAr.  XVii. 

one  side,  and  meditated  how  long  it  was  siiice  they  had  seen 
bipeds  without  feathers  breaking  the  solitude  of  their  isle. 

And  Frank  wandered  up  and  down,  silent,  but  rather  in 
wonder  than  in  sadness,  while  great  Amyas  walked  after  him, 
his  mouth  full  of  junipa-apples,  and  enacted  the  part  of  show- 
man, with  a  sort  of  patronising  air,  as  one  who  had  seen  the 
wonders  already,  and  was  above  being  astonished  at  them. 

"New,  new;  everything  new!"  said  Frank  meditatively. 
"  Oh,  awful  feeling !  All  things  changed  around  us,  even  to 
the  tiniest  fly  and  flower ;  yet  we  the  same ;  the  same  for 
ever ! " 

Amyas,  to  whom  such  utterances  were  altogether  sibylline 
and  unintelligible,  answered  by — 

"  Look,  Frank,  that's  a  colibri.     You've  heard  of  colibris  V 

Frank  looked  at  the  living  gem,  which  hung,  loud  humming, 
over  some  fantastic  bloom,  and  then  dashed  away,  seemingly  to 
call  its  mate,  and  whirred  and  danced  with  it  round  and 
round  the  flower-starred  bushes,  flashing  fresh  rainbows  at 
every  shifting  of  the  lights. 

Frank  watched  solemnly  awhile,  and  then — 

"  Qualis  ISTatura  fonnatrix,  si  talis  formata  1  Oh,  my  God, 
how  fair  must  be  Thy  real  world,  if  even  Thy  phantoms  are  so 
fair  !" 

"Phantoms'?"  asked  Amyas  uneasily.  "That's  no  ghost, 
Frank,  but  a  jolly  little  honey-sucker,  with  a  wee  wife,  and 
children  no  bigger  than  peas,  but  yet  solid  greedy  little  fellows 
enough,  I'll  warrant." 

"  Not  phantoms  in  thy  sense,  good  fellow,  but  in  the  sense 
of  those  who  know  the  worthlessness  of  all  below." 

"  I'll  tell  you  what,  brother  Frank,  yau  are  a  great  deal 
wiser  than  me,  I  know ;  but  I  can't  abide  to  see  you  turn  up 
your  nose  as  it  were  at  God's  good  earth.  See  now,  God  made 
all  these  things ;  and  never  a  man,  perhaps,  set  eyes  on  them 
till  fifty  years  agone ;  and  yet  they  were  as  pretty  as  they  are 
now,  ever  since  the  making  of  the  world.  And  why  do  you 
think  God  could  have  put  them  here,  then,  but  to  please  Him- 
self " — and  Amyas  took  off  his  hat — "  with  the  sight  of  them  ? 
Now,  I  say,  brother  Frank,  what's  good  enough  to  please  God, 
is  good  enough  to  please  you  and  me." 

"  Your  rebuke  is  just,  dear  old  simple-hearted  fellow ;  and 
God  forgive  me,  if  with  all  my  learning,  which  has  brought  me 
no  profit,  and  my  longings,  which  have  brought  me  no  peace,  I 
presume  at  moments,  sinner  that  I  am,  to  be  more  dainty  than 


CHAP.  XVII.]  AND  FOUND  NO  MEN  THEREIN.  319 

the  Lord  Himself.  He  walked  in  Paradise  among  the  trees  of 
the  garden,  Amyas ;  and  so  will  we,  and  be  content  with  what 
He  sends.  Why  should  we  long  for  the  next  world,  before  we 
are  fit  even  for  this  one  1" 

"  And  in  the  meanwhile,"  said  Amyas,  "  this  earth's  quite 
good  enough,  at  least  here  in  Barbados." 

"Do  you  believe,"  asked  Frank,  trying  to  turn  his  own 
thoughts,  "  in  those  tales  of  the  Spaniards,  that  the  Sirens  and 
Tritons  are  heard  singing  in  these  seas  V 

"  I  can't  tell.  There's  more  fish  in  the  water  than  ever 
came  out  of  it,  and  more  wonders  in  the  world,  I'll  warrant, 
than  we  ever  dreamt  of;  but  I  was  never  in  these  parts  before; 
and  in  the  South  Sea,  I  must  say,  I  never  came  across  any, 
though  Yeo  says  he  has  heard  fair  music  at  night  up  in  the 
Gulf,  far  away  from  land." 

"  The  Spaniards  report  that  at  certain  seasons  choirs  of 
these  nymphs  assemble  in  the  sea,  and  with  ravishing  music 
sing  their  watery  loves.  It  may  be  so.  For  Nature,  which 
has  peopled  the  land  with  rational  souls,  may  not  have  left  the 
sea  altogether  barren  of  them ;  above  all,  when  we  remember 
that  the  ocean  is  as  it  were  the  very  fount  of  all  fertility,  and 
its  slime  (as  the  most  learned  hold  with  Thales  of  Miletus) 
that  prima  materia  out  of  which  all  things  were  one  by  one 
concocted.  Therefore,  the  ancients  feigned  wisely  that  Venus, 
the  mother  of  all  living  things,  whereby  they  designed  the 
plastic  force  of  nature,  was  born  of  the  sea-foam,  and  rising 
from  the  deep,  floated  ashore  upon  the  isles  of  Greece." 

"  I  don't  know  what  plastic  force  is ;  but  I  wish  I  had  had 
the  luck  to  be  by  when  the  pretty  poppet  came  up :  however, 
the  nearest  thing  I  ever  saw  to  that  was  maidens  swimming 
alongside  of  us  when  we  were  in  the  South  Seas,  and  would  have 
come  aboard,  too ;  but  Drake  sent  them  all  off  again  for  a  lot 
of  naughty  packs,  and  I  verily  believe  they  were  no  better. 
Look  at  the  butterflies,  now  !  Don't  you  wish  you  were  a  boy 
again,  and  not  too  proud  to  go  catching  them  in  your  cap  1" 

And  so  the  two  wandered  on  together  through  the  glorious 
tropic  woods,  and  then  returned  to  the  beach  to  find  the  sick 
already  grown  cheerful,  and  many  who  that  morning  could  not 
stir  from  their  hammocks,  pacing  up  and  down,  and  gaining 
strength  with  every  step. 

"Well  done,  lads  !"  cried  Amyas,  "keep  a  cheerful  mind. 
We  will  have  the  music  ashore  after  dinner,  for  want  of  mer- 
inuids  to  sing  to  us,  and  those  that  can  dance  may." 


320  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS          [CHAP.  xvm. 

And  so  those  four  days  were  spent;  and  the  men,  like 
schoolboys  on  a  holiday,  gave  themselves  up  to  simple  merri- 
ment, not  forgetting,  however,  to  wash  the  clothes,  take  in  fresh 
water,  and  store-up  a  good  supply  of  such  fruit  as  seemed  likely 
to  keep ;  until,  tired  with  fruitless  rambles  after  gold,  which 
they  expected  to  find  in  every  bush,  in  spite  of  Yeo's  warnings 
that  none  had  been  heard  of  on  the  island,  they  were  fain  to 
lounge  about,  full-grown  babies,  picking  up  shells  and  sea-fans 
to  take  home  to  their  sweethearts,  smoking  agoutis  out  of  the 
hollow  trees,  with  shout  and  laughter,  and  tormenting  every 
living  thing  they  could  come  near,  till  not  a  land-crab  dare  look 
out  of  his  hole,  or  an  armadillo  unroll  himself,  till  they  were 
safe  out  of  the  bay,  and  off  again  to  the  westward,  unconscious 
pioneers  of  all  the  wealth,  and  commerce,  and  beauty,  and 
science  which  has  in  later  centuries  made  that  lovely  isle  the 
richest  gem  of  all  the  tropic  seas. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

HOW   THEY  TOOK  THE  PEAELS   AT   MARGARITA. 

P.  Henry.     Why,  what  a  rascal  art  thou,  then,  to  praise  him  so  for 
running  ! 

Falstaff.     0'  horseback,  ye  cuckoo  !  but  a-foot,  he  will  not  budge  a 
foot. 

P.  Henry.     Yes,  Jack,  upon  instinct. 

Falstaff.     I  grant  ye,  upon  instinct. 

Henry  IV.  Pt.  I. 

THEY  had  slipped  past  the  southern  point  of  Grenada  in  the 
night,  and  were  at  last  within  that  fairy  ring  of  islands,  on 
which  nature  had  concentrated  all  her  beauty,  and  man  all  his 
sin.  If  Barbados  had  been  invested  in  the  eyes  of  the  new- 
comers with  some  strange  glory,  how  much  more  the  seas  on 
which  they  now  entered,  which  smile  in  almost  perpetual  calm, 
untouched  by  the  hurricane  which  roars  past  them  far  to  north- 
ward !  Sky,  sea,  and  islands  were  one  vast  rainbow ;  though 
little  marked,  perhaps,  by  those  sturdy  practical  sailors,  whose 
main  thought  was  of  Spanish  gold  and  pearls ;  and  as  little  by 
Amyas,  who,  accustomed  to  the  scenery  of  the  tropics,  was 
speculating  inwardly  on  the  possibility  of  extirpating  the 
Spaniards,  and  annexing  the  West  Indies  to  the  domains  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  And  yet  even  their  unpoetic  eyes  could  not 
behold  without  awe  and  excitement  lands  so  famous  and  yet  so 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  AT  MARGARITA.  321 

new,  around  which  all  the  wonder,  all  the  pity,  and  all  the 
greed  of  the '  age  had  concentrated  itself.  It  was  an  awful 
thought,  and  yet  inspiriting,  that  they  were  entering  regions  all 
but  unknown  to  Englishmen,  where  the  penalty  of  failure  would 
be  worse  than  death — the  torments  of  the  Inquisition.  Not 
more  than  five  times  before,  perhaps,  had  those  mysterious  seas 
been  visited  by  English  keels ;  but  there  were  those  on  board 
who  knew  them  well,  and  too  well ;  who,  first  of  all  British 
mariners,  had  attempted  under  Captain  John  Hawkins  to  trade 
along  those  very  coasts,  and,  interdicted  from  the  necessaries  of 
life  by  Spanish  jealousy,  had,  in  true  English  fashion,  won  their 
markets  at  the  sword's  point,  and  then  bought  and  sold  honestly 
and  peaceably  therein.  The  old  mariners  of  the  Pelican  and 
the  Minion  were  questioned  all  day  long  for  the  names  of  every 
isle  and  cape,  every  fish  and  bird  ;  while  Frank  stood  by, 
listening  serious  and  silent. 

A  great  awe  seemed  to  have  possessed  his  soul :  yet  not  a 
sad  one :  for  his  face  seemed  daily  to  drink  in  glory  from  the 
glory  round  him  ;  and  murmuring  to  himself  at  whiles,  "  This 
is  the  gate  of  heaven,"  he  stood  watching  all  day  long,  careless 
of  food  and  rest,  as  every  forward  plunge  of  the  ship  displayed 
some  fresh  wonder.  Islands  and  capes  hung  high  in  air,  with 
their  inverted  images  below  them ;  long  sand-hills  rolled  and  wel- 
tered in  the  mirage;  and  the  yellow  flower-beds,  and  huge  thorny 
cacti  like  giant  candelabra,  which  clothed  the  glaring  slopes, 
twisted,  tossed,  and  flickered,  till  the  whole  scene  seemed  one 
blazing  phantom-world,  in  which  everything  was  as  unstable  as 
it  was  fantastic,  even  to  the  sun  itself,  distorted  into  strange 
oval  and  pear-shaped  figures  by  the  beds  of  crimson  mist  through 
which  he  sank  to  rest.  But  while  Frank  wondered,  Yeo  re- 
joiced ;  for  to  the  southward  of  that  setting  sun  a  cluster  of 
tall  peaks  rose  from  the  sea  ;  and  they,  unless  his  reckonings 
were  wrong,  were  the  mountains  of  Macanao,  at  the  western 
end  of  Margarita,  the  Isle  of  Pearls,  then  famous  in  all  the  cities 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  at  the  great  German  fairs,  and  second 
only  in  richness  to  that  pearl  island  in  the  gulf  of  Panama, 
which  fifteen  years  before  had  cost  John  Oxenham  his  life. 

The  next  day  saw  them  running  along  the  north  side  of  the 
island,  having  passed  undiscovered  (as  far  as  they  could  see)  the 
castle  which  the  Spaniards  had  built  at  the  eastern  end  for  the 
protection  of  the  pearl  fisheries. 

At  last  they  opened  a  deep  and  still  bight,  wooded  to  the 
water's  edge ;  and  lying  in  the  roadstead  a  caravel,  and  three 

Y 


322  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

boats  by  her.  And  at  that  sight  there  was  not  a  man  but  was 
on  deck  at  once,  and  not  a  mouth  but  was  giving  its  opinion  of 
what  should  be  done.  Some  were  for  sailing  right  into  the 
roadstead,  the  breeze  blowing  fresh  toward  the  shore  (as  it 
usually  does  throughout  those  islands  in  the  afternoon).  How- 
ever, seeing  the  billows  break  here  and  there  off  the  bay's  mouth, 
they  thought  it  better,  for  fear  of  rocks,  to  run  by  quietly,  and 
then  send  in  the  pinnace  and  the  boat.  Yeo  would  have  had 
them  show  Spanish  colours,  for  fear  of  alarming  the  caravel ; 
but  Amyas  stoutly  refused,  "counting  it,"  he  said,  "a  mean 
thing  to  tell  a  lie  in  that  way,  unless  in  extreme  danger,  or  for 
great  ends  of  state." 

So  holding  on  their  course  till  they  were  shut  out  by  the 
next  point,  they  started  ;  Gary  in  the  largest  boat  with  twenty 
men,  and  Amyas  in  the  smaller  one  with  fifteen  more ;  among 
whom  was  John  Brimblecombe,  who  must  needs  come  in  his 
cassock  and  bands,  with  an  old  sword  of  his  uncle's  which  he 
prized  mightily. 

When  they  came  to  the  bight's  mouth,  they  found,  as  they 
had  expected,  coral  rocks,  and  too  many  of  them ;  so  that  they 
had  to  run  along  the  edge  of  the  reef  a  long  way  before  they 
could  find  a  passage  for  the  boats.  While  they  were  so  doing, 
and  those  of  them  who  were  new  to  the  Indies  were  admiring 
through  the  clear  element  those  living  flower-beds,  and  sub- 
aqueous gardens  of  Nereus  and  Amphitrite,  there  suddenly 
appeared  below  what  Yeo  called  "  a  school  of  sharks,"  some  of 
them  nearly  as  long  as  the  boat,  who  looked  up  at  them  wist- 
fully enough  out  of  their  wicked  scowling  eyes. 

"  Jack,"  said  Amyas,  who  sat  next  to  him,  "  look  how  that 
big  fellow  eyes  thee  :  he  has  surely  taken  a  fancy  to  that  plump 
hide  of  thine,  and  thinks  thou  wouldst  eat  as  tender  as  any 
sucking  porker." 

Jack  turned  very  pale,  but  said  nothing. 

Now,  as  it  befell,  just  then  that  very  big  fellow,  seeing  a 
parrot-fish  come  out  of  a  cleft  of  the  coral,  made  at  him  from 
below,  as  did  two  or  three  more ;  the  poor  fish  finding  no  other 
escape,  leaped  clean  into  the  air,  and  almost  aboard  the  boat ; 
while  just  where  he  had  come  out  of  the  water,  three  or  four 
great  brown  shagreened  noses  clashed  together  within  two  yards 
of  Jack  as  he  sat,  each  showing  its  horrible  rows  of  saw  teeth, 
and  then  sank  sulkily  down  again,  to  watch  for  a  fresh  bait. 
At  which  Jack  said  very  softly,  "  In  manus  tuas,  Domine  !"  and 
turning  his  eyes  inboard,  had  no  lust  to  look  at  sharks  any  more. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  AT  MARGARITA.  323 

So  having  got  through  the  reef,  in  they  ran  with  a  fair 
breeze,  the  caravel  not  being  now  a  musket-shot  off.  Gary  laid 
her  aboard  before  the  Spaniards  had  time  to  get  to  their 
ordnance ;  and  standing  up  in  the  stern-sheets,  shouted  to  them 
to  yield.  The  captain  asked  boldly  enough,  in  whose  name  ? 
"  In  the  name  of  common  sense,  ye  dogs,"  cries  Will  -}  "  do  you 
not  see  that  you  are  but  fifty  strong  to  our  twenty  V  Whereon 
up  the  side  he  scrambled,  and  the  captain  fired  a  pistol  at  him. 
Gary  knocked  him  over,  unwilling  to  shed  needless  blood ;  on 
which  all  the  crew  yielded,  some  falling  on  their  knees,  some 
leaping  overboard ;  and  the  prize  was  taken. 

In  the  meanwhile,  Amyas  had  pulled  round  under  her  stern, 
and  boarded  the  boat  which  was  second  from  her,  for  the  nearest 
was  fast  alongside,  and  so  a  sure  prize.  The  Spaniards  in  her 
yielded  without  a  blow,  crying  "Misericordia;"  and  the  negroes, 
leaping  overboard,  swam  ashore  like  sea-dogs.  Meanwhile,  the 
third  boat,  which  was  not  an  oar's  length  off,  turned  to  pull 
away.  Whereby  befell  a  notable  adventure  :  for  John  Brimble- 
combe,  casting  about  in  a  valiant  mind  how  he  should  dis- 
tinguish himself  that  day,  must  needs  catch  up  a  boat-hook, 
and  claw  on  to  her  stern,  shouting  "  Stay,  ye  Papists  !  Stay, 
Spanish  dogs  ! " — by  which,  as  was  to  be  expected,  they  being 
ten  to  his  one,  he  was  forthwith  pulled  overboard,  and  fell  all 
along  on  his  nose  in  the  sea,  leaving  the  hook  fast  in  her 
stern. 

Where,  I  know  not  how,  being  seized  with  some  panic  fear 
(his  lively  imagination  filling  all  the  sea  with  those  sharks 
which  he  had  just  seen),  he  fell  a-roaring  like  any  town-bull, 
and  in  his  confusion  never  thought  to  turn  and  get  aboard 
again,  but  struck  out  lustily  after  the  Spanish  boat,  whether  in 
hope  of  catching  hold  of  the  boat-hook  which  trailed  behind 
her,  or  from  a  very  madness  of  valour,  no  man  could  divine ; 
but  on  he  swam,  his  cassock  afloat  behind  him,  looking  for  all 
the  world  like  a  great  black  monk-fish,  and  howling  and  puffing, 
with  his  mouth  full  of  salt  water,  "  Stay,  ye  Spanish  dogs ! 
Help,  all  good  fellows  !  See  you  not  that  I  am  a  dead  man  ? 
They  are  nuzzling  already  at  my  toes  !  He  hath  hold  of  my 
leg !  My  right  thigh  is  bitten  clean  off !  Oh  that  I  were 
preaching  in  Hartland  pulpit !  Stay,  Spanish  dogs  !  Yield, 
Papist  cowards,  least  I  make  mincemeat  of  you  ;  and  take  me 
aboard  I  Yield,  I  say,  or  my  blood  be  on  your  heads  !  I  am 
no  Jonah ;  if  he  swallow  me,  he  will  never  cast  me  up  again  ! 
it  is  better  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  man,  than  into  the  hands 


324  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS  [CHAP.  xviu. 

of  devils  with  three  rows  of  teeth  apiece.  In  manus  titas. 
Orate  pro  animd /" 

And  so  forth,  in  more  frantic  case  than  ever  was  Panurge 
in  that  his  ever-memorable  sea-sickness;  till  the  English,  ex- 
pecting him  every  minute  to  be  snapped  up  by  sharks,  or 
brained  by  the  Spaniard's  oars,  let  fly  a  volley  into  the  fugitives, 
on  which  they  all  leaped  overboard  like  their  fellows ;  whereon 
Jack  scrambled  into  the  boat,  and  drawing  sword  with  one 
hand,  while  he  wiped  the  water  out  of  his  eyes  with  the  other, 
began  to  lay  about  him  like  a  very  lion,  cutting  the  empty  air, 
and  crying,  "Yield,  idolaters!  Yield,  Spanish  dogs!"  How- 
ever, coming  to  himself  after  a  while,  and  seeing  that  there  was 
no  one  on  whom  to  flesh  his  maiden  steel,  he  sits  down  panting 
in  the  sternsheets,  and  begins  stripping  off  his  hose.  On  which 
Amyas,  thinking  surely  that  the  good  fellow  had  gone  mad 
with  some  stroke  of  the  sun,  or  by  having  fallen  into  the  sea 
after  being  overheated  with  his  rowing,  bade  pull  alongside, 
and  asked  him  in  heaven's  name  what  he  was  doing  with  his 
nether  tackle.  On  which  Jack,  amid  such  laughter  as  may  be 
conceived,  vowed  and  swore  that  his  right  thigh  was  bitten 
clean  through,  and  to  the  bone ;  yea,  and  that  he  felt  his  hose 
full  of  blood ;  and  so  would  have  swooned  away  for  imaginary 
loss  of  blood  (so  strong  was  the  delusion  on  him)  had  not  his 
friends,  after  much  arguing  on  their  part,  and  anger  on  his, 
persuaded  him  that  he  was  whole  and  sound. 

After  which  they  set  to  work  to  overhaul  their  maiden 
prize,  which  they  found  full  of  hides  and  salt-pork ;  and  yet 
not  of  that  alone ;  for  in  the  captain's  cabin,  and  also  in  the 
sternsheets  of  the  boat  which  Brimblecombe  had  so  valorously 
boarded,  were  certain  frails  of  leaves  packed  neatly  enough, 
which  being  opened  were  full  of  goodly  pearls,  though  some- 
what brown  (for  the  Spaniards  used  to  damage  the  colour  in 
their  haste  and  greediness,  opening  the  shells  by  fire,  instead  of 
leaving  them  to  decay  gradually  after  the  Arabian  fashion)  ; 
with  which  prize,  though  they  could  not  guess  its  value  very 
exactly,  they  went  off  content  enough,  after  some  malicious 
fellow  had  set  the  ship  on  fire,  which,  being  laden  with  hides, 
was  no  nosegay  as  it  burnt. 

Amyas  was  very  angry  at  this  wanton  damage,  in  which 
his  model,  Drake,  had  never  indulged ;  but  Gary  had  his  jest 
ready.  "  Ah  !"  said  he,  " '  Lutheran  devils '  we  are,  you  know ; 
so  we  are  bound  to  vanish,  like  other  fiends,  with  an  evil 
savour." 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  AT  MARGARITA.  325 

As  soon,  however,  as  Amy  as  was  on  board  again,  he  rounded 
his  friend  Mr.  Brimblecombe  in  the  ear,  and  told  him  he  had 
better  play  the  man  a  little  more,  roaring  less  before  he  was 
hurt,  and  keeping  his  breath  to  help  his  strokes,  if  he  wished 
the  crew  to  listen  much  to  his  discourses.  Frank,  hearing 
this,  bade  Amyas  leave  the  offender  to  him,  and  so  began  upon 
him  with — • 

"  Come  hither,  thou  recreant  Jack,  thou  lily-livered  Jack, 
thou  hysterical  Jack.  Tell  me  now,  thou  hast  read  Plato's 
Dialogues,  and  Aristotle's  Logic  ?" 

To  which  Jack  very  meekly  answered,  "Yes." 

"  Then  I  will  deal  with  thee  after  the  manner  of  those  ancient 
sages,  and  ask  whether  the  greater  must  not  contain  the  less  ?" 

Jack. — Yes,  sure. 

Frank. — And  that  which  is  more  than  a  part,  contain  that 
part,  more  than  which  it  is  1 

Jack. — Yes,  sure. 

Frank. — Then  tell  me,  is  not  a  priest  more  than  a  layman  1 

Jack  (who  was  always  very  loud  about  the  dignity  of  the 
priesthood,  as  many  of  his  cloth  are,  who  have  no  other  dignity 
whereon  to  stand)  answered  very  boldly — "  Of  course." 

Frank. — Then  a  priest  containeth  a  man,  and  is  a  man,  and 
something  over — viz.  his  priesthood? 

Jack  (who  saw  whither  this  would  lead). — I  suppose  so. 

Frank. — Then,  if  a  priest  show  himself  no  man,  he  shows 
himself  all  the  more  no  priest  ? 

"  I'll  tell  you  what,  Master  Frank,"  says  Jack,  "  you  may 
be  right  by  logic ;  but  sharks  aren't  logic,  nor  don't  understand 
it  neither." 

Frank. — Nay  but,  my  recalcitrant  Jack,  my  stiffnecked 
Jack,  is  it  the  part  of  a  man  to  howl  like  a  pig  in  a  gate, 
because  he  thinks  that  is  there  which  is  not  there  1 

Jack  had  not  a  word  to  say. 

Frank. — And  still  more,  when  if  that  had  been  there,  it 
had  been  the  duty  of  a  brave  man  to  have  kept  his  mouth  shut, 
if  only  to  keep  salt  water  out,  and  not  add  the  evil  of  choking 
to  that  of  being  eaten  ? 

"Ah  !"  says  Jack,  "that's  all  very  fine;  but  you  know  as 
well  as  I  that  it  was  not  the  Spaniards  I  was  afraid  of.  They 
were  Heaven's  handiwork,  and  I  knew  how  to  deal  with  them ; 
but  as  for  those  fiends'  spawn  of  sharks,  when  I  saw  that  fellow 
take  the  fish  alongside,  it  upset  me  clean,  and  there's  an  end 
of  it!" 


326  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS  [CHAP.  xvm. 

Frank. — Oh,  Jack,  Jack,  behold  how  one  sin  begets  another ! 
Just  now  thou  wert  but  a  coward,  and  now  thou  art  a  Mani- 
chee.  For  thou  hast  imputed  to  an  evil  creator  that  which  was 
formed  only  for  a  good  end,  namely,  sharks,  which  were  made 
on  purpose  to  devour  useless  carcasses  like  thine.  Moreover, 
as  a  brother  of  the  Rose,  thou  wert  bound  by  the  vow  of  thy 
brotherhood  to  have  leaped  joyfully  down  that  shark's  mouth. 

Jack. — Ay,  very  likely,  if  Mistress  Rose  had  been  in  his 
stomach  ;  but  I  wanted  to  fight  Spaniards  just  then,  not  to  be 
shark-bitten. 

Frank. — Jack,  thy  answer  savours  of  self-will.  If  it  is 
ordained  that  thou  shouldst  advance  the  ends  of  the  Brother 
hood  by  being  shark-bitten,  or  flea-bitten,  or  bitten  by  sharpers, 
to  the  detriment  of  thy  carnal  wealth,  or,  shortly,  to  suffer  auy 
shame  or  torment  whatsoever,  even  to  strappado  and  scarpines, 
thou  art  bound  to  obey  thy  destiny,  and  not,  after  that  vain 
Roman  conceit,  to  choose  the  manner  of  thine  own  death,  which 
is  indeed  only  another  sort  of  self-murder.  We  therefore  con- 
sider thee  as  a  cause  of  scandal,  and  a  rotten  and  creaking 
branch,  to  be  excised  by  the  spiritual  arm,  and  do  hereby  excise 
thee,  and  cut  thee  off. 

Jack. — Nay  faith,  that's  a  little  too  much,  Master  Frank. 
How  long  have  you  been  Bishop  of  Exeter  ? 

Frank. — Jack,  thy  wit  being  blinded,  and  full  of  gross 
vapours,  by  reason  of  the  perturbations  of  fear  (which,  like 
anger,  is  a  short  madness,  and  raises  in  the  phantasy  vain 
spectres, — videlicet,  of  sharks  and  Spaniards),  mistakes  our 
lucidity.  For  thy  Manicheeism,  let  his  lordship  of  Exeter  deal 
with  it.  For  thy  abominable  howling  and  caterwauling,  offen- 
sive in  a  chained  cur,  but  scandalous  in  a  preacher  and  a  brother 
of  the  Rose,  we  do  hereby  deprive  thee  of  thine  office  of  chap- 
lain to  the  Brotherhood;  and  warn  thee,  that  unless  within 
seven  days  thou  do  some  deed  equal  to  the  Seven  Champions, 
or  Ruggiero  and  Orlando's  self,  thou  shalt  be  deprived  of  sword 
and  dagger,  and  allowed  henceforth  to  carry  no  more  iron  about 
thee  than  will  serve  to  mend  thy  pen. 

"  And  now,  Jack,"  said  Amyas,  "  I  will  give  thee  a  piece 
of  news.  No  wonder  that  young  men,  as  the  parsons  complain 
so  loudly,  will  not  listen  to  the  Gospel,  while  it  is  preached  to 
them  by  men  on  whom  they  cannot  but  look  down ;  a  set  of 
softhanded  fellows  who  cannot  dig,  and  are  ashamed  to  beg ; 
and,  as  my  brother  has  it,  must  needs  be  parsons  before  they 
are  men." 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  AT  MARGARITA.  327 

Frank. — Ay,  and  even  though  we  may  excuse  that  in  Popish 
priests  and  friars,  who  are  vowed  not  to  be  men,  and  get  their 
bread  shamefully  and  rascally  by  telling  sinners  who  owe  a 
hundred  measures  to  sit  down  quickly  and  take  their  bill  and 
write  fifty :  yet  for  a  priest  of  the  Church  of  England  (whose 
business  is  not  merely  to  smuggle  sinful  souls  up  the  backstairs 
into  heaven,  but  to  make  men  good  Christians  by  making  them 
good  men,  good  gentlemen,  and  good  Englishmen)  to  show  the 
white  feather  in  the  hour  of  need,  is  to  unpreach  in  one  minute 
all  that  he  had  been  preaching  his  life  long. 

"I  tell  thee,"  says  Ainyas,  "if  I  had  not  taken  thee  for 
another  guess  sort  of  man,  I  had  never  let  thee  have  the  care 
of  a  hundred  brave  lads'  immortal  souls " 

And  so  on,  both  of  them  boarding  him  at  once  with  their 
heavy  shot,  larboard  and  starboard,  till  he  fairly  clapped  his 
hands  to  his  ears  and  ran  for  it,  leaving  poor  Frank  laughing 
so  heartily,  that  Amyas  was  after  all  glad  the  thing  had  hap- 
pened, for  the  sake  of  the  smile  which  it  put  into  his  sad  and 
steadfast  countenance. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday ;  on  which,  after  divine  service 
(which  they  could  hardly  persuade  Jack  to  read,  so  shamefaced 
was  he ;  and  as  for  preaching  after  it,  he  would  not  hear  of 
such  a  thing),  Amyas  read  aloud,  according  to  custom,  the 
articles  of  their  agreement ;  and  then  seeing  abreast  of  them  a 
sloping  beach  with  a  shoot  of  clear  water  running  into  the  sea, 
agreed  that  they  should  land  there,  wash  the  clothes,  and  again 
water  the  ship ;  for  they  had  found  water  somewhat  scarce  at 
Barbados.  On  this  party  Jack  Brimblecornbe  must  needs  go, 
taking  with  him  his  sword  and  a  great  arquebuse ;  for  he  had 
dreamed  last  night  (he  said)  that  he  was  set  upon  by  Spaniards, 
and  was  sure  that  the  dream  would  come  true ;  and  moreover, 
that  he  did  not  very  much  care  if  they  did,  or  if  he  ever  got 
back  alive ;  "for  it  was  better  to  die  than  be  made  an  ape, 
and  a  scarecrow,  and  laughed  at  by  the  men,  and  badgered  with 
Eamus  his  logic,  and  Plato  his  dialectical  devilries,  to  confess 
himself  a  Manichee,  and,  for  aught  he  knew,  a  turbaned  Turk, 
or  Hebrew  Jew,"  and  so  flung  into  the  boat  like  a  man  desperate. 

So  they  went  ashore,  after  Amyas  had  given  strict  com- 
mands against  letting  off  firearms,  for  fear  of  alarming  the 
Spaniards.  There  they  washed  their  clothes,  and  stretched 
their  legs  with  great  joy,  admiring  the  beauty  of  the  place,  and 
then  began  to  shoot  the  seine  which  they  had  brought  on  shore 
with  them.  "In  which,"  says  the  chronicler,  "we  caught 


328  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

many  strange  fishes,  and  beside  them,  a  sea-cow  full  seven  feet 
long,  with  limpets  and  barnacles  on  her  back,  as  if  she  had 
been  a  stick  of  drift-timber.  This  is  a  fond  and  foolish  beast : 
and  yet  pious  withal ;  for  finding  a  corpse,  she  watches  over  it 
day  and  night  until  it  decay  or  be  buried.  The  Indians  call 
her  nwinati ;  who  carries  her  young  under  her  arm,  and  gives 
it  suck  like  a  woman  ;  and  being  wounded,  she  lamenteth  aloud 
with  a  human  voice,  and  is  said  at  certain  seasons  to  sing  very 
melodiously ;  which  melody,  perhaps,  having  been  heard  in 
those  seas,  is  that  which  Mr.  Frank  reported  to  be  the  choirs 
of  the  Sirens  and  Tritons.  The  which  I  do  not  avouch  for 
truth,  neither  rashly  deny,  having  seen  myself  such  fertility  of 
Nature's  wonders  that  I  hold  him  who  denieth  aught  merely 
for  its  strangeness  to  be  a  ribald  and  an  ignoramus.  Also  one 
of  our  men  brought  in  two  great  black  fowls  which  he  had  shot 
with  a  crossbow,  bodied  and  headed  like  a  capon,  but  bigger 
than  any  eagle,  which  the  Spaniards  call  curassos  ;  which,  with 
that  sea-cow,  afterwards  made  us  good  cheer,  both  roast  and 
sodden,  for  the  cow  was  very  dainty  meat,  as  good  as  a  four- 
months'  calf,  and  tender  and  fat  withal." 

After  that  they  set  to  work  filling  the  casks  and  barricos, 
having  laid  the  boat  up  to  the  outflow  of  the  rivulet.  And 
lucky  for  them  it  was,  as  it  fell  out,  that  they  were  all  close 
together  at  that  work,  and  not  abroad  skylarking  as  they  had 
been  half-an-hour  before. 

Now  John  Brimblecombe  had  gone  apart  as  soon  as  they 
landed,  with  a  shamefaced  and  doleful  countenance ;  and  sitting 
down  under  a  great  tree,  plucked  a  Bible  from  his  bosom,  and 
read  steadfastly,  girded  with  his  great  sword,  and  his  arquebuse 
lying  by  him.  This  too  was  well  for  him,  and  for  the  rest ; 
for  they  had  not  yet  finished  their  watering,  when  there  was  a 
cry  that  the  enemy  was  on  them ;  and  out  of  the  wood,  not 
twenty  yards  from  the  good  parson,  came  full  fifty  shot,  with  a 
multitude  of  negroes  behind  them,  and  an  officer  in  front  on 
horseback,  with  a  great  plume  of  feathers  in  his  hat,  and  his 
sword  drawn  in  his  hand. 

"  Stand,  for  your  lives  !"  shouted  Amyas  :  and  only  just  in 
time ;  for  there  was  ten  good  minutes  lost  in  running  up  and 
down  before  he  could  get  his  men  into  some  order  of  battle. 
But  when  Jack  beheld  the  Spaniards,  as  if  he  had  expected 
their  coming,  he  plucked  a  leaf  and  put  it  into  the  page  of  his 
book  for  a  mark,  laid  the  book  down  soberly,  caught  up  his 
arquebuse,  ran  like  a  mad  dog  right  at  the  Spanish  captain, 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  AT  MARGARITA.  329 

shot  him  through  the  body  stark  dead,  and  then,  flinging  the 
arquebuse  at  the  head  of  him  who  stood  next,  fell  on  with  his 
sword  like  a  very  Colbrand,  breaking  in  among  the  arquebuses, 
and  striking  right  and  left  such  ugly  strokes,  that  the  Spaniards 
(who  thought  him  a  very  fiend,  or  Luther's  self  come  to  life  to 
plague  them)  gave  back  pell-mell,  and  shot  at  him  five  or  six 
at  once  with  their  arquebuses  :  but  whether  from  fear  of  him, 
or  of  wounding  each  other,  made  so  bad  play  with  their  pieces, 
that  he  only  got  one  shrewd  gall  in  his  thigh,  which  made  him 
limp  for  many  a  day.  But  as  fast  as  they  gave  back  he  came 
on ;  and  the  rest  by  this  time  ran  up  in  good  order,  and  alto- 
gether nearly  forty  men  well  armed.  On  which  the  Spaniards 
turned,  and  went  as  fast  as  they  had  come,  while  Gary  hinted 
that,  "  The  dogs  had  had  such  a  taste  of  the  parson,  that  they 
had  no  mind  to  wait  for  the  clerk  and  people." 

"  Come  back,  Jack  !  are  you  mad  ?"  shouted  Amyas. 

But  Jack  (who  had  not  all  this  time  spoken  one  word)  fol- 
lowed them  as  fiercely  as  ever,  till,  reaching  a  great  blow  at 
one  of  the  arquebusiers,  he  caught  his  foot  in  a  root ;  on  which 
down  he  went,  and  striking  his  head  against  the  ground,  knocked 
out  of  himself  all  the  breath  he  had  left  (which  between  fatness 
and  fighting  was  not  much),  and  so  lay.  Amyas,  seeing  the 
Spaniards  gone,  did  not  care  to  pursue  them :  but  picked  up 
Jack,  who,  staring  about,  cried,  "  Glory  be  !  glory  be  ! — How 
many  have  I  killed1?  How  many  have  I  killed  ?" 

"  Nineteen,  at  the  least,"  quoth  Gary,  "  and  seven  with  one 
back  stroke  ; "  and  then  showed  Brimblecombe  the  captain  lying 
dead,  and  two  arquebusiers,  one  of  which  was  the  fugitive  by 
whom  he  came  to  his  fall,  beside  three  or  four  more  who  were 
limping  away  wounded,  some  of  them  by  their  fellows'  shot. 

"  There  !"  said  Jack,  pausing  and  blowing,  "will  you  laugh 
at  me  any  more,  Mr.  Gary ;  or  say  that  I  cannot  fight,  because 
I  am  a  poor  parson's  son  1" 

Gary  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  asked  pardon  of  him  for 
his  scoffing,  saying  that  he  had  that  day  played  the  best  man 
of  all  of  them ;  and  Jack,  who  never  bore  malice,  began  laugh- 
ing in  his  turn,  and — 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Gary,  we  have  all  known  your  pleasant  ways,  ever 
since  you  used  to  put  drumble-drones  into  my  desk  to  Bideford 
school."  And  so  they  went  to  the  boats,  and  pulled  off,  thank- 
ing God  (as  they  had  need  to  do)  for  their  great  deliverance  : 
while  all  the  boats'  crew  rejoiced  over  Jack,  who  after  a  while 
grew  very  faint  (having  bled  a  good  deal  without  knowing  it), 


330  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  PEARLS        [CHAP.  XVIII. 

and  made  as  little  of  his  real  wound  as  he  made  much  the  day 
before  of  his  imaginary  one. 

Frank  asked  him  that  evening  how  he  came  to  show  so  cool 
and  approved  a  valour  in  so  sudden  a  mishap. 

"  Well,  my  masters,"  said  Jack,  "  I  don't  deny  that  I  was 
very  downcast  on  account  of  what  you  said,  and  the  scandal 
which  I  had  given  to  the  crew ;  but  as  it  happened,  I  was  read- 
ing there  under  the  tree,  to  fortify  my  spirits,  the  history  of 
the  ancient  worthies,  in  St.  Paul  his  eleventh  chapter  to  the 
Hebrews ;  and  just  as  I  came  to  that,  '  out  of  weakness  were 
made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the 
armies  of  the  aliens,'  arose  the  cry  of  the  Spaniards.  At  which, 
gentlemen,  thinking  in  myself  that  I  fought  in  just  so  good  a 
cause  as  they,  and,  as  I  hoped,  with  like  faith,  there  came  upon 
me  so  strange  an  assurance  of  victory,  that  I  verily  believed  in 
myself  that  if  there  had  been  a  ten  thousand  of  them,  I  should 
have  taken  no  hurt.  Wherefore,"  said  Jack  modestly,  "there  is 
no  credit  due  to  me,  for  there  was  no  valour  in  me  whatsoever, 
but  only  a  certainty  of  safety ;  and  any  coward  would  fight  if 
he  knew  that  he  were  to  have  all  the  killing  and  none  of  the 
scratches." 

Which  words  he  next  day,  being  Sunday,  repeated  in  his 
sermon  which  he  made  on  that  chapter,  with  which  all,  even 
Salvation  Yeo  himself,  were  well  content  and  edified,  and  allowed 
him  to  be  as  godly  a  preacher  as  he  was  (in  spite  of  his  simple 
ways)  a  valiant  and  true-hearted  comrade. 

They  brought  away  the  Spanish  officer's  sword  (a  very  good 
blade),  and  also  a  great  chain  of  gold  which  he  wore  about  his 
neck ;  both  of  which  were  allotted  to  Brimblecombe  as  his  fair 
prize ;  but  he,  accepting  the  sword,  steadfastly  refused  the  chain, 
entreating  Amyas  to  put  it  into  the  common  stock ;  and  when 
Amyas  refused,  he  cut  it  into  links  and  distributed  it  among 
those  of  the  boat's  crew  who  had  succoured  him,  winning  there- 
by much  good-will.  "  And  indeed  "  (says  the  chronicler),  "  I 
never  saw  in  that  worthy  man,  from  the  first  day  of  our  school- 
fellowship  till  he  was  laid  in  his  parish  church  of  Hartland 
(where  he  now  sleeps  in  peace),  any  touch  of  that  sin  of  covet- 
ousness  which  has  in  all  ages,  and  in  ours  no  less  than  others, 
beset  especially  (I  know  not  why)  them  who  minister  about  the 
sanctuary.  But  this  man,  though  he  was  ugly  and  lowly  in 
person,  and  in  understanding  simple,  and  of  breeding  but  a  poor 
parson's  son,  had  yet  in  him  a  spirit  so  loving  and  cheerful,  so 
lifted  from  base  and  selfish  purposes  to  the  worship  of  duty,  and 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  331 

to  a  generosity  rather  knightly  than  sacerdotal,  that  all  through 
his  life  he  seemed  to  think  only  that  it  was  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive.  And  all  that  wealth  which  he  gained  in  the 
wars  he  dispersed  among  his  sisters  and  the  poor  of  his  parish, 
living  unmarried  till  his  death  like  a  true  lover  and  constant 
mourner  (as  shall  be  said  in  place),  and  leaving  hardly  where- 
with to  bring  his  body  to  the  grave.  At  whom  if  we  often 
laughed  once,  we  should  now  rather  envy  him,  desiring  to  be  here 
what  he  was,  that  we  may  be  hereafter  where  he  is.  Amen." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

WHAT   BEFELL   AT    LA   GUAYBA. 

"  Great  was  the  crying,  the  running  and  riding, 
Which  at  that  season  was  made  in  the  place  ; 

The  beacons  were  fired,  as  need  then  required, 
To  save  their  great  treasure  they  had  little  space." 

Winning  of  Coles. 

THE  men  would  gladly  have  hawked  awhile  round  Margarita 
and  Cubagua  for  another  pearl  prize.  But  Amyas  having,  as 
he  phrased  it,  "  fleshed  his  dogs,"  was  loth  to  hang  about  the 
islands  after  the  alarm  had  been  given.  They  ran,  therefore, 
south-west  across  the  mouth  of  that  great  bay  which  stretches 
from  the  Peninsula  of  Paria  to  Cape  Codera,  leaving  on  their 
right  hand  Tortuga,  and  on  their  left  the  meadow-islands  of  the 
Piritoos,  two  long  green  lines  but  a  few  inches  above  the  tide- 
less  sea.  Yeo  and  Drew  knew  every  foot  of  the  way,  and  had 
good  reason  to  know  it;  for  they,  the  first  of  all  English 
mariners,  had  tried  to  trade  along  this  coast  with  Hawkins. 
And  now,  right  ahead,  sheer  out  of  the  sea  from  base  to  peak, 
arose  higher  and  higher  the  mighty  range  of  the  Caraccas  moun- 
tains ;  beside  which  all  hills  which  most  of  the  crew  had  ever 
seen  seemed  petty  mounds.  Frank,  of  course,  knew  the  Alps;  and 
Amyas  the  Andes ;  but  Gary's  notions  of  height  were  bounded 
by  M'Gillicuddy's  Reeks,  and  Brimblecombe's  by  Exmoor ;  and 
the  latter,  to  Gary's  infinite  amusement,  spent  a  whole  day  hold- 
ing on  by  the  rigging,  and  staring  upwards  with  his  chin  higher 
than  his  nose,  till  he  got  a  stiff  neck.  Soon  the  sea  became 
rough  and  chopping,  though  the  breeze  was  fair  and  gentle  ;  and 
ere  they  were  abreast  of  the  Cape,  they  became  aware  of  that 
strong  eastward  current  which,  during  the  winter  months,  so 


332  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYKA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

often  baffles  the  mariner  who  wishes  to  go  to  the  westward. 
All  night  long  they  struggled  through  the  billows,  with  the 
huge  wall  of  Cape  Codera  a  thousand  feet  above  their  heads  to 
the  left,  and  beyond  it  again,  bank  upon  bank  of  mountain, 
bathed  in  the  yellow  moonlight. 

Morning  showed  them  a  large  ship,  which  had  passed  them 
during  the  night  upon  the  opposite  course,  and  was  now  a  good 
ten  miles  to  the  eastward.  Yeo  was  for  going  back  and  taking 
her.  Of  the  latter  he  made  a  matter  of  course ;  and  the  former 
was  easy  enough,  for  the  breeze  blowing  dead  off  the  land,  was 
a  "  soldier's  wind,  there  and  back  again,"  for  either  ship ;  but 
Amyas  and  Frank  were  both  unwilling. 

"  Why,  Yeo,  you  said  that  one  day  more  would  bring  us  to 
La  Guayra." 

"  All  the  more  reason,  sir,  for  doing  the  Lord's  work  thor- 
oughly, when  He  has  brought  us  safely  so  far  on  our  journey." 

"  She  can  pass  well  enough,  and  no  loss." 

"Ah,  sirs,  sirs,  she  is  delivered  into  your  hands,  and  you 
will  have  to  give  an  account  of  her." 

"  My  good  Yeo,"  said  Frank,  "  I  trust  we  shall  give  good 
account  enough  of  many  a  tall  Spaniard  before  we  return : 
but  you  know  surely  that  La  Guayra,  and  the  salvation  of  one 
whom  we  believe  dwells  there,  was  our  first  object  in  this  ad- 
venture." 

Yeo  shook  his  head  sadly.  "Ah,  sirs,  a  lady  brought 
Captain  Oxenham  to  ruin." 

"You  do  not  dare  to  compare  her  with  this  one?"  said 
Frank  and  Gary,  both  in  a  breath. 

"  God  forbid,  gentlemen :  but  no  adventure  will  prosper, 
unless  there  is  a  single  eye  to  the  Lord's  work ;  and  that  is,  as 
I  take  it,  to  cripple  the  Spaniard,  and  exalt  her  Majesty  the 
queen.  And  I  had  thought  that  nothing  was  more  dear  than 
that  to  Captain  Leigh's  heart." 

Amyas  stood  somewhat  irresolute.  His  duty  to  the  queen 
bade  him  follow  the  Spanish  vessel :  his  duty  to  his  vow,  to  go 
on  to  La  Guayra.  It  may  seem  a  far-fetched  dilemma.  He 
found  it  a  practical  one  enough. 

However,  the  counsel  of  Frank  prevailed,  and  on  to  La 
Guayra  he  went.  He  half  hoped  that  the  Spaniard  would  see 
and  attack  them.  However,  he  went  on  his  way  to  the  east- 
ward ;  which  if  he  had  not  done,  my  story  had  had  a  very 
different  ending. 

About  mid-day  a  canoe,  the  first  which  they  had  seen,  came 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  333 

staggering  toward  them  under  a  huge  three-cornered  sail.  As 
it  came  near,  they  could  see  two  Indians  on  board. 

"  Metal  floats  in  these  seas,  you  see/'  quoth  Gary.  "  There's 
a  fresh  marvel,  for  you,  Frank." 

"  Expound,"  quoth  Frank,  who  was  really  ready  to  swallow 
any  fresh  marvel,  so  many  had  he  seen  already. 

"  Why,  how  else  would  those  two  bronze  statues  dare  to 
go  to  sea  in  such  a  cockleshell,  eh  1  Have  I  given  you  the  dor 
now,  master  courtier  ?" 

"  I  am  long  past  dors,  Will.  But  what  noble  creatures 
they  are  !  and  how  fearlessly  they  are  coming  alongside  !  Can 
they  know  that  we  are  English,  and  the  avengers  of  the  Indians'?" 

"  I  suspect  they  just  take  us  for  Spaniards,  and  want  to 
sell  their  cocoa-nuts.  See,  the  canoe  is  laden  with  vegetables." 

"Hail  them,  Yeo  !"  said  Amyas.  "You  talk  the  best 
Spanish,  and  I  want  speech  of. one  of  them." 

Yeo  did  so ;  the  canoe,  without  more  ado,  ran  alongside, 
and  lowered  her  felucca  sail,  while  a  splendid  Indian  scrambled 
on  board  like  a  cat. 

He  was  full  six  feet  high,  and  as  bold  and  graceful  of 
bearing  as  Frank  or  Amyas's  self.  He  looked  round  for  the 
first  moment  smilingly,  snowing  his  white  teeth ;  but  the  next, 
his  countenance  changed ;  and  springing  to  the  side,  he  shouted 
to  his  comrade  in  Spanish — 

"  Treachery  !  No  Spaniard  !"  and  would  have  leaped  over- 
board, but  a  dozen  strong  fellows  caught  him  ere  he  could  do  so. 

It  required  some  trouble  to  master  him,  so  strong  was  he, 
and  so  slippery  his  naked  limbs ;  Amyas,  meanwhile,  alternately 
entreated  the  men  not  to  hurt  the  Indian,  and  the  Indian  to  be 
quiet,  and  no  harm  should  happen  to  him ;  and  so,  after  five 
minutes'  confusion,  the  stranger  gave  in  sulkily. 

"  Don't  bind  him  !  Let  him  loose,  and  make  a  ring  round 
him.  Now,  my  man,  there's  a  dollar  for  you." 

The  Indian's  eyes  glistened,  and  he  took  the  coin. 

"  All  I  want  of  you  is,  first,  to  tell  me  what  ships  are  in 
La  Guayra,  and  next,  to  go  thither  on  board  of  me,  and  show 
me  which  is  the  governor's  house,  and  which  the  custom-house." 

The  Indian  laid  the  coin  down  on  the  deck,  and  crossing 
himself,  looked  Amyas  in  the  face. 

"  No,  Senor  !  I  am  a  freeman  and  a  cavalier,  a  Christian 
Guayqueria,  whose  forefathers,  first  of  all  the  Indians,  swore 
fealty  to  the  King  of  Spain,  and  whom  he  calls  to  this  day  in 
all  his  proclamations  his  most  faithful,  loyal,  and  noble  Guay- 


334  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  xix. 

querias.  God  forbid,  therefore,  that  I  should  tell  aught  to  his 
enemies,  who  are  my  enemies  likewise." 

A  growl  arose  from  those  of  the  men  who  understood  him ; 
and  more  than  one  hinted  that  a  cord  twined  round  the  head, 
or  a  match  put  between  the  fingers,  would  speedily  extract  the 
required  information. 

"  God  forbid  !"  said  Amyas,  "  a  brave  and  loyal  man  he  is, 
and  as  such  will  I  treat  him.  Tell  me,  my  brave  fellow,  how 
do  you  know  us  to  be  his  Catholic  Majesty's  enemies?" 

The  Indian,  with  a  shrewd  smile,  pointed  to  half-a-dozen 
different  objects,  saying  to  each,  "  Not  Spanish." 

"  Well,  and  what  of  that  1" 

"  None  but  Spaniards  and  free  Guayquerias  have  a  right  to 
sail  these  seas." 

Amyas  laughed. 

"Thou  art  a  right  valiant  bit  of  copper.  Pick  up  thy 
dollar,  and  go  thy  way  in  peace.  Make  room  for  him,  men. 
We  can  learn  what  we  want  without  his  help." 

The  Indian  paused,  incredulous  and  astonished. 

"Overboard  with  you  !"  quoth  Amyas.  "  Don't  you  know 
when  you  are  well  off?" 

"  Most  illustrious  Senor,"  began  the  Indian,  in  the  drawling 
sententious  fashion  of  his  race  (when  they  take  the  trouble  to 
talk  at  all),  "  I  have  been  deceived.  I  heard  that  you  heretics 
roasted  and  ate  all  true  Catholics  (as  we  Guayquerias  are),  and 
that  all  your  padres  had  tails." 

"Plague  on  you,  sirrah!"  squeaked  Jack  Brimblecombe. 
"  Have  I  a  tail  ?  Look  here  !" 

"Quien  sabe?  Who  knows?"  quoth  the  Indian  through 
his  nose. 

"  How  do  you  know  we  are  heretics  ?"  said  Amyas. 

"  Humph  !  But  in  repayment  for  your  kindness,  I  would 
warn  you,  illustrious  Senor,  not  to  go  on  to  La  Guayra.  There 
are  ships  of  war  there  waiting  for  you;  and  moreover,  the 
governor  Don  Guzman  sailed  to  the  eastward  only  yesterday  to 
look  for  you  ;  and  I  wonder  much  that  you  did  not  meet  him." 

"To  look  for  us!  On  the  watch  for  us!"  said  Gary. 
"  Impossible  ;  lies  !  Amyas,  this  is  some  trick  of  the  rascal's 
to  frighten  us  away." 

"  Don  Guzman  came  out  but  yesterday  to  look  for  us  ?  Are 
you  sure  you  spoke  truth  ?" 

"  As  I  live,  Senor,  he  and  another  ship,  for  which  I  took 
yours." 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  335 

Amyas  stamped  upon  the  deck  :  that  then  was  the  ship 
which  they  had  passed  ! 

"  Fool  that  I  was  to  have  been  close  to  my  enemy,  and  let 
my  opportunity  slip  !  If  I  had  but  done  my  duty,  all  would 
have  gone  right!" 

But  it  was  too  late  to  repine  ;  and  after  all,  the  Indian's 
story  was  likely  enough  to  be  false. 

"Off  with  you!"  said  he;  and  the  Indian  bounded  over 
the  side  into  his  canoe,  leaving  the  whole  crew  wondering  at 
the  stateliness  and  courtesy  of  this  bold  sea-cavalier. 

So  Westward-ho  they  ran,  beneath  the  mighty  northern 
wall,  the  highest  cliff  on  earth,  some  seven  thousand  feet  of 
rock  parted  from  the  sea  by  a  narrow  strip  of  bright  green  low- 
land. Here  and  there  a  patch  of  sugar-cane,  or  a  knot  of  cocoa- 
nut  trees,  close  to  the  water's  edge,  reminded  them  that  they 
were  in  the  tropics ;  but  above,  all  was  savage,  rough,  and 
bare  as  an  Alpine  precipice.  Sometimes  deep  clefts  allowed 
the  southern  sun  to  pour  a  blaze  of  light  down  to  the  sea  marge, 
and  gave  glimpses  far  above  of  strange  and  stately  trees  lining 
the  glens,  and  of  a  veil  of  perpetual  mist  which  shrouded  the 
inner  summits ;  while  up  and  down,  between  them  and  the 
mountain  side,  white  fleecy  clouds  hung  motionless  in  the  burn- 
ing air,  increasing  the  impression  of  vastness  and  of  solemn 
rest,  which  was  already  overpowering. 

"  Within  those  mountains,  three  thousand  feet  above  our 
heads,"  said  Drew,  the  master,  "  lies  Saint  Yago  de  Leon,  the 
great  city  which  the  Spaniards  founded  fifteen  years  agone." 

" Is  it  a  rich  place?"  asked  Gary. 

"  Very,  they  say." 

"  Is  it  a  strong  place  1"  asked  Amyas. 

"  No  forts  to  it  at  all,  they  say.  The  Spaniards  boast,  that 
Heaven  has  made  such  good  walls  to  it  already,  that  man  need 
make  none." 

"  I  don't  know,"  quoth  Amyas.  "  Lads,  could  you  climb 
those  hills,  do  you  think?" 

"  Rather  higher  than  Harty  Point,  sir :  but  it  depends 
pretty  much  on  what's  behind  them." 

And  now  the  last  point  is  rounded,  and  they  are  full  in 
sight  of  the  spot  in  quest  of  which  they  have  sailed  four  thou- 
sand miles  of  sea.  A  low  black  cliff,  crowned  by  a  wall ;  a 
battery  at  either  end.  Within,  a  few  narrow  streets  of  white 
houses,  running  parallel  with  the  sea,  upon  a  strip  of  flat,  which 
seemed  not  two  hundred  yards  in  breadth;  and  behind,  the 


336  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  xix. 

mountain  wall,  covering  the  whole  in  deepest  shade.  How 
that  wall  was  ever  ascended  to  the  inland  seemed  the  puzzle ; 
but  Drew,  who  had  been  off  the  place  before,  pointed  out  to 
them  a  narrow  path,  which  wound  upwards  through  a  glen, 
seemingly  sheer  perpendicular.  That  was  the  road  to  the 
capital,  if  any  man  dare  try  it.  In  spite  of  the  shadow  of 
the  mountain,  the  whole  place  wore  a  dusty  and  glaring  look. 
The  breaths  of  air  which  came  off  the  land  were  utterly  stifling ; 
and  no  wonder,  for  La  Guayra,  owing  to  the  radiation  of  that 
vast  fire-brick  of  heated  rock,  is  one  of  the  hottest  spots  upon 
the  face  of  the  whole  earth. 

Where  was  the  harbour  ?  There  was  none.  Only  an  open 
roadstead,  wherein  lay  tossing  at  anchor  five  vessels.  The  two 
outer  ones  were  small  merchant  caravels.  Behind  them  lay 
two  long,  low,  ugly-looking  craft,  at  sight  of  which  Yeo  gave  a 
long  whew. 

"  Galleys,  as  I'm  a  sinful  saint !  And  what's  that  big  one 
inside  of  them,  Robert  Drew  1  She  has  more  than  hawseholes 
in  her  idolatrous  black  sides,  I  think." 

"  We  shall  open  her  astern  of  the  galleys  in  another  minute," 
said  Amyas.  "  Look  out,  Gary,  your  eyes  are  better  than 
mine." 

"  Six  round  portholes  on  the  main  deck,"  quoth  Will. 

"  And  I  can  see  the  brass  patararoes  glittering  on  her  poop," 
quoth  Amyas.  "  Will,  we're  in  for  it." 

"  In  for  it  we  are,  captain. 

"  Farewell,  farewell,  my  parents  dear, 
I  never  shall  see  you  more,  I  fear. 

Let's  go  in,  nevertheless,  and  pound  the  Don's  ribs,  my  old  lad 
of  Smerwick.  Eh  ]  Three  to  one  is  very  fair  odds." 

"  Not  underneath  those  fort  guns,  I  beg  leave  to  say," 
quoth  Yeo.  "  If  the  Philistines  will  but  come  out  unto  us, 
we  will  make  them  like  unto  Zeba  and  Zalmunna." 

"  Quite  true,"  said  Amyas.  "  Game  cocks  are  game  cocks, 
but  reason's  reason." 

"  If  the  Philistines  are  not  coming  out,  they  are  going  to 
send  a  messenger  instead,"  quoth  Gary.  "  Look  out,  all  thin 
skulls !" 

And  as  he  spoke,  a  puff  of  white  smoke  rolled  from  the 
eastern  fort,  and  a  heavy  ball  plunged  into  the  water  between 
it  and  the  ship. 

"  I  don't  altogether  like  this,"  quoth  Amyas.  "  What  do 
they  mean  by  firing  on  us  without  warning  1  And  what  are 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  337 

these   ships   of  war   doing   here?     Drew,    you   told   me   the 
armadas  never  lay  here." 

"  No  more,  I  believe,  they  do,  sir,  on  account  of  the  anchor- 
age being  so  bad,  as  you  may  see.  I'm  mortal  afeared  that 
rascal's  story  was  true,  and  that  the  Dons  have  got  wind  of 
our  coming." 

"  Run  up  a  white  flag,  at  all  events.  If  they  do  expect  us, 
they  must  have  known  some  time  since,  or  how  could  they  have 
got  their  craft  hither?" 

"  True,  sir.  They  must  have  come  from  Santa  Martha,  at 
the  least ;  perhaps  from  Carthagena.  And  that  would  take  a 
month  at  least  going  and  coming." 

Amyas  suddenly  recollected  Eustace's  threat  in  the  way- 
side inn.  Could  he  have  betrayed  their  purpose  1  Impossible ! 

"Let  us  hold  a  council  of  war,  at  all  events,  Frank." 

Frank  was  absorbed  in  a  very  different  matter.  A  half- 
mile  to  the  eastward  of  the  town,  two  or  three  hundred  feet 
up  the  steep  mountain  side,  stood  a  large,  low,  white  house 
embosomed  in  trees  and  gardens.  There  was  no  other  house 
of  similar  size  near ;  no  place  for  one.  And  was  not  that  the 
royal  flag  of  Spain  which  flaunted  before  it  ?  That  must  be 
the  governor's  house ;  that  must  be  the  abode  of  the  Rose  of 
Torridge  !  And  Frank  stood  devouring  it  with  wild  eyes,  till 
he  had  persuaded  himself  that  he  could  see  a  woman's  figure 
walking  upon  the  terrace  in  front,  and  that  the  figure  was 
none  other  than  hers  whom  he  sought.  Amyas  could  hardly 
tear  him  away  to  a  council  of  war,  which  was  a  sad,  and  only 
not  a  peevish  one. 

The  three  adventurers,  with  Brimblecombe,  Yeo,  and  Drew, 
went  apart  upon  the  poop ;  and  each  looked  the  other  in  the 
face  awhile.  For  what  was  to  be  done  ?  The  plans  and  hopes 
of  months  were  brought  to  nought  in  an  hour. 

"  It  is  impossible,  you  see,"  said  Amyas  at  last,  "  to  sur- 
prise the  town  by  land,  while  these  ships  are  here ;  for  if  we 
laud  our  men,  we  leave  our  ship  without  defence." 

"  As  impossible  as  to  challenge  Don  Guzman  while  he  is 
not  here,"  said  Gary. 

"  I  wonder  why  the  ships  have  not  opened  on  us  already," 
said  Drew. 

"Perhaps  they  respect  our  flag  of  truce,"  said  Gary, 
"  Why  not  send  in  a  boat  to  treat  with  them,  and  to  inquire 
for " 

"  For  her  1"   interrupted  Frank.     "If  we  show  that  we 
z 


338  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  <JUAYRA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

are  aware  of  her  existence,  her  name  is  blasted  in  the  eyes  of 
those  jealous  Spaniards." 

"  And  as  for  respecting  our  flag  of  truce,  gentlemen,"  said 
Yeo,  "  if  you  will  take  an  old  man's  advice,  trust  them  not. 
They  will  keep  the  same  faith  with  us  as  they  kept  with 
Captain  Hawkins  at  San  Juan  d'Ulloa,  in  that  accursed  business 
which  was  the  beginning  of  all  the  wars  ;  when  we  might  have 
taken  the  whole  Plate-fleet,  with  two  hundred  thousand  pounds' 
worth  of  gold  on  board,  and  did  not,  but  only  asked  licence  to 
trade  like  honest  men.  And  yet,  after  they  had  granted  us 
licence,  and  deceived  us  by  fair  speech  into  landing  ourselves 
and  our  ordnance,  the  governor  and  all  the  fleet  set  upon  us, 
five  to  one,  and  gave  no  quarter  to  any  soul  whom  he  took. 
No,  sir ;  I  expect  the  only  reason  why  they  don't  attack  us  is, 
because  their  crews  are  not  on  board." 

"  They  will  be,  soon  enough,  then,"  said  Amyas.  "  I  can 
see  soldiers  coming  down  the  landing-stairs." 

And,  in  fact,  boats  full  of  armed  men  began  to  push  off  to 
the  ships. 

"We  may  thank  Heaven,"  said  Drew,  "  that  we  were  not 
here  two  hours  agone.  The  sun  will  be  down  before  they  are 
ready  for  sea,  and  the  fellows  will  have  no  stomach  to  go  look- 
ing for  us  by  night." 

"  So  much  the  worse  for  us.  If  they  will  but  do  that,  we 
may  give  them  the  slip,  and  back  again  to  the  town,  and  there 
try  our  luck  ;  for  I  cannot  find  it  in  my  heart  to  leave  the  place 
without  having  one  dash  at  it." 

Yeo  shook  his  head.  "  There  are  plenty  more  towns  along 
the  coast  more  worth  trying  than  this,  sir  :  but  Heaven's  will 
be  done ! " 

And  as  they  spoke,  the  sun  plunged  into  the  sea,  and  all 
was  dark. 

At  last  it  was  agreed  to  anchor,  and  wait  till  midnight. 
If  the  ships  of  war  came  out,  they  were  to  try  to  run  in  past 
them,  and,  desperate  as  the  attempt  might  be,  attempt  their 
original  plan  of  landing  to  the  westward  of  the  town,  taking  it 
in  flank,  plundering  the  government  storehouses,  which  they 
saw  close  to  the  landing-place,  and  then  fighting  their  way  back 
to  their  boats,  and  out  of  the  roadstead.  Two  hours  would  suffice 
if  the  armada  and  the  galleys  were  but  once  out  of  the  way. 

Amyas  went  forward,  called  the  men  together,  and  told 
them  the  plan.  It  was  not  very  cheerfully  received  :  but  what 
else  was  there  to  be  done  ! 


CHAP.  XIX.  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  339 

They  ran  down  about  a  mile  and  a  half  to  the  westward, 
and  anchored. 

The  night  wore  on,  and  there  was  no  sign  of  stir  among  the 
shipping ;  for  though  they  could  not  see  the  vessels  themselves, 
yet  their  lights  (easily  distinguished  by  their  relative  height 
from  those  in  the  town  above)  remained  motionless ;  and  the 
men  fretted  and  fumed  for  weary  hours  at  thus  seeing  a  rich 
prize  (for  of  course  the  town  was  paved  with  gold)  within  arm's 
reach,  and  yet  impossible. 

Let  Amyas  and  his  men  have  patience.  Some  short  five 
years  more,  and  the  great  Armada  will  have  come  and  gone ; 
and  then  that  avenging  storm,  of  which  they,  like  Oxenham, 
Hawkins,  and  Drake,  are  but  the  avant-couriers,  will  burst 
upon  every  Spanish  port  from  Corunna  to  Cadiz,  from  the 
Canaries  to  Havanna,  and  La  Guayra  and  St.  Yago  de  Leon 
will  not  escape  their  share.  Captain  Amyas  Preston  and 
Captain  Sommers,  the  colonist  of  the  Bermudas,  or  Sommers' 
Islands,  will  land,  with  a  force  tiny  enough,  though  larger  far 
than  Leigh's,  where  Leigh  dare  not  land ;  and  taking  the  fort 
of  Guayra,  will  find,  as  Leigh  found,  that  their  coming  has 
been  expected,  and  that  the  Pass  of  the  Venta,  three  thousand 
feet  above,  has  been  fortified  with  huge  barricadoes,  abattis, 
and  cannon,  making  the  capital,  amid  its  ring  of  mountain- 
walls,  impregnable — to  all  but  Englishmen  or  Zouaves.  For 
up  that  seven  thousand  feet  of  precipice,  which  rises  stair  on 
stair  behind  the  town,  those  fierce  adventurers  will  climb  hand 
over  hand,  through  rain  and  fog,  while  men  lie  down,  and  beg 
their  officers  to  kill  them,  for  no  farther  can  they  go.  Yet 
farther  they  will  go,  hewing  a  path  with  their  swords  through 
woods  of  wild  plantain,  and  rhododendron  thickets,  over  (so  it 
seems,  however  incredible)  the  very  saddle  of  the  Silla,1  down 
upon  the  astonished  "  Mantuanos "  of  St.  Jago,  driving  all 
before  them ;  and  having  burnt  the  city  in  default  of  ransom, 
will  return  triumphant  by  the  right  road,  and  pass  along  the 
coast,  the  masters  of  the  deep. 

I  know  not  whether  any  men  still  live  who  count  their 
descent  from  those  two  valiant  captains ;  but  if  such  there  be,  let 
them  be  sure  that  the  history  of  the  English  navy  tells  no  more 
Titanic  victory  over  nature  and  man  than  that  now  forgotten  raid 
of  Amyas  Preston  and  his  comrade,  in  the  year  of  grace  1595. 

1  Humboldt  says  that  there  is  a  path  from  Caravellada  to  St.  Jago, 
between  the  peaks,  used  by  smugglers.  This  is  probably  the  "  unknowen 
way  of  the  Indians,"  which  Preston  used. 


340  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

But  though  a  venture  on  the  town  was  impossible,  yet 
there  was  another  venture  which  Frank  was  unwilling  to  let 
slip.  A  light  which  now  shone  brightly  in  one  of  the  windows 
of  the  governor's  house  was  the  lodestar  to  which  all  his 
thoughts  were  turned  ;  and  as  he  sat  in  the  cabin  with  Amyas, 
Gary,  and  Jack,  he  opened  his  heart  to  them. 

"  And  are  we,  then,"  asked  he  mournfully,  "  to  go  without 
doing  the  very  thing  for  which  we  came  ?" 

All  were  silent  awhile.    At  last  John  Brimblecombe  spoke. 

"  Show  me  the  way  to  do  it,  Mr.  Frank,  and  I  will  go." 

"My  dearest  man,"  said  Amyas,  "what  would  you  have? 
Any  attempt  to  see  her,  even  if  she  be  here,  would  be  all  but 
certain  death." 

"And  what  if  it  were?  What  if  it  were,  my  brother 
Amyas?  Listen  to  me.  I  have  long  ceased  to  shrink  from 
Death ;  but  till  I  came  into  these  magic  climes,  I  never  knew 
the  beauty  of  his  face." 

"Of  death?"  said  Gary.  "I  should  have  said,  of  life. 
God  forgive  me  !  but  man  might  wish  to  live  for  ever,  if  he 
had  such  a  world  as  this  wherein  to  live." 

"  And  do  you  forget,  Gary,  that  the  more  fair  this  passing 
world  of  time,  by  so  much  the  more  fair  is  that  eternal  world, 
whereof  all  here  is  but  a  shadow  and  a  dream  ;  by  so  much  the 
more  fair  is  He  before  whose  throne  the  four  mystic  beasts,  the 
substantial  ideas  of  Nature  and  her  powers,  stand  day  and 
night,  crying,  '  Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  hosts,  Thou  hast 
made  all  things,  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were  created ! ' 
My  friends,  if  He  be  so  prodigal  of  His  own  glory  as  to  have 
decked  these  lonely  shores,  all  but  unknown  since  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world,  with  splendours  beyond  all  our  dreams,  what 
must  be  the  glory  of  His  face  itself !  I  have  done  with  vain 
shadows.  It  is  better  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Him,  where 
shall  be  neither  desire  nor  anger,  self-deception  nor  pretence, 
but  the  eternal  fulness  of  reality  and  truth.  One  thing  I  have 
to  do  before  I  die,  for  God  has  laid  it  on  me.  Let  that  be 
done  to-night,  and  then,  farewell !" 

"  Frank  !  Frank  !  remember  our  mother  !" 

"  I  do  remember  her.  I  have  talked  over  these  things  with 
her  many  a  time ;  and  where  I  would  fain  be,  she  would  fain 
be  also.  She  sent  me  out  with  my  virgin  honour,  as  the  Spartan 
mother  did  her  boy  with  the  shield,  saying,  '  Come  back  either 
with  this,  or  upon  this ;'  and  one  or  the  other  I  must  do,  if  I 
would  meet  her  either  in  this  life  or  in  the  next.  But  in  the 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  341 

meanwhile  do  not  mistake  me ;  my  life  is  God's,  and  I  promise 
not  to  cast  it  away  rashly." 

"What  would  you  do,  then?" 

"Go  up  to  that  house,  Amyas,  and  speak  with  her,  if 
Heaven  gives  me  an  opportunity,  as  Heaven,  I  feel  assured, 
will  give." 

"  And  do  you  call  that  no  rashness  ?" 

"  Is  any  duty  rashness  1  Is  it  rash  to  stand  amid  the  flying 
bullets,  if  your  queen  has  sent  you  ?  Is  it  more  rash  to  go  to 
seek  Christ's  lost  lamb,  if  God  and  your  own  oath  hath  sent 
you  ?  John  Brimblecombe  answered  that  question  for  us  long 
ago." 

"  If  you  go,  I  go  with  you  !"  said  all  three  at  once. 

"  No.  Amyas,  you  owe  a  duty  to  our  mother,  and  to  your 
ship.  Gary,  you  are  heir  to  great  estates ;  and  are  bound 
thereby  to  your  country  and  to  your  tenants.  John  Brimble- 
combe  " 

"Ay!"  squeaked  Jack.  "And  what  have  you  to  say, 
Mr.  Frank,  against  my  going '? — I,  who  have  neither  ship  nor 
estates — except,  I  suppose,  that  I  am  not  worthy  to  travel  in 
such  good  company  1" 

"  Think  of  your  old  parents,  John,  and  all  your  sisters." 

"  I  thought  of  them  before  I  started,  sir,  as  Mr.  Gary  knows, 
and  you  know  too.  I  came  here  to  keep  my  vow,  and  I  am 
not  going  to  turn  renegade  at  the  very  foot  of  the  cross." 

"  Some  one  must  go  with  you,  Frank,"  said  Amyas ;  "  if  it 

were  only  to  bring  back  the  boat's  crew  in  case "  and  he 

faltered. 

"In  case  I  fall,"  replied  Frank,  with  a  smile.  "I  will 
finish  your  sentence  for  you,  lad ;  I  am  not  afraid  of  it,  though 
you  may  be  for  me.  Yet  some  one,  I  fear,  must  go.  Unhappy 
me  !  that  I  cannot  risk  my  own  worthless  life  without  risking 
your  more  precious  lives  1" 

"  Not  so,  Mr.  Frank !  Your  oath  is  our  oath,  and  your 
duty  ours  !"  said  John.  "I  will  tell  you  what  we  will  do,  gentle- 
men all.  We  three  will  draw  cuts  for  the  honour  of  going 
with  him." 

"Lots?"  said  Amyas.  "I  don't  like  leaving  such  grave 
matters  to  chance,  friend  John." 

"  Chance,  sir  ?  When  you  have  used  all  your  own  wit,  and 
find  it  fail  you,  then  what  is  drawing  lots  but  taking  the  matter 
out  of  your  own  weak  hands,  and  laying  it  in  God's  strong 
hands?" 


342  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

"Eight,  John  !"  said  Frank  "  So  did  the  apostles  choose 
their  successor,  and  so  did  holy  men  of  old  decide  controversies 
too  subtle  for  them ;  and  we  will  not  be  ashamed  to  follow 
their  example.  For  my  part,  I  have  often  said  to  Sidney  and 
to  Spenser,  when  we  have  babbled  together  of  Utopian  govern 
ments  in  days  which  are  now  dreams  to  me,  that  I  would  have 
all  officers  of  state  chosen  by  lot  out  of  the  wisest  and  most  fit ; 
so  making  sure  that  they  should  be  called  by  God,  and  not  by 
man  alone.  Gentlemen,  do  you  agree  to  Sir  John's  advice  ! " 

They  agreed,  seeing  no  better  counsel,  and  John  put  three 
slips  of  paper  into  Frank's  hand,  with  the  simple  old  apostolic 
prayer — "Show  which  of  us  three  Thou  hast  chosen." 

The  lot  fell  upon  Amyas  Leigh. 

Frank  shuddered,  and  clasped  his  hands  over  his  face. 

"Well,"  said  Gary,  "I  have  ill- luck  to-night :  but  Frank 
goes  at  least  in  good  company." 

"Ah,  that  it  had  been  I !"  said  Jack;  "though  I  suppose 
I  was  too  poor  a  body  to  have  such  an  honour  fall  on  me.  And 
yet  it  is  hard  for  flesh  and  blood ;  hard  indeed  to  have  come 
all  this  way,  and  not  to  see  her  after  all ! " 

"  Jack,"  said  Frank,  "  you  are  kept  to  do  better  work  than 
this,  doubt  not.  But  if  the  lot  had  fallen  on  you — ay,  if  it 
had  fallen  on  a  three  years'  child,  I  would  have  gone  up  as 
cheerfully  with  that  child  to  lead  me,  as  I  do  now  with  this 
my  brother  !  Amyas,  can  we  have  a  boat,  and  a  crew  1  It  is 
near  midnight  already." 

Amyas  went  on  deck,  and  asked  for  six  volunteers.  Who- 
soever would  come,  Amyas  would  double  out  of  his  own  purse 
any  prize-money  which  might  fall  to  that  man's  share. 

One  of  the  old  Pelican's  crew,  Simon  Evans  of  Clovelly, 
stepped  out  at  once. 

"  Why  six  only,  captain  1  Give  the  word,  and  any  and 
all  of  us  will  go  up  with  you,  sack  the  house,  and  bring  off  the 
treasure  and  the  lady,  before  two  hours  are  out." 

"  No,  no,  my  brave  lads  !  As  for  treasure,  if  there  be  any, 
it  is  sure  to  have  been  put  all  safe  into  the  forts,  or  hidden  in 
the  mountains ;  and  as  for  the  lady,  God  forbid  that  we  should 
force  her  a  step  without  her  own  will." 

The  honest  sailor  did  not  quite  understand  this  punctilio  : 
but— 

"Well,  captain,"  quoth  he,  "as  you  like;  but  no  man 
shall  say  that  you  asked  for  a  volunteer,  were  it  to  jump  down 
a  shark's  throat,  but  what  you  had  me  first  of  all  the  crew." 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  343 

After  this  sort  of  temper  had  been  exhibited,  three  or  four 
more  came  forward — Yeo  was  very  anxious  to  go,  but  Ainyas 
forbade  him. 

"I'll  volunteer,  sir,  without  reward,  for  this  or  anything; 
though  "  (added  he  in  a  lower  tone)  "  I  would  to  Heaven  that 
the  thought  had  never  entered  your  head." 

"And  so  would  I  have  volunteered,"  said  Simon  Evans, 
"if  it  were  the  ship's  quarrel,  or  the  queen's ;  but  being  it's  a 
private  matter  of  the  captain's,  and  I've  a  wife  and  children  at 
home,  why,  I  take  no  shame  to  myself  for  asking  money  for  my 
life." 

So  the  crew  was  made  up ;  but  ere  they  pushed  off,  Amyas 
called  Gary  aside — 

"  If  I  perish,  Will— 

"  Don't  talk  of  such  things,  dear  old  lad." 

"  I  must.  Then  you  are  captain.  Do  nothing  without 
Yeo  and  Drew.  But  if  they  approve,  go  right  north  away  for 
San  Domingo  and  Cuba,  and  try  the  ports  ;  they  can  have  no 
news  of  us  there,  and  there  is  booty  without  end.  Tell  my 
mother  that  I  died  like  a  gentleman ;  and  mind — mind,  clear 
lad,  to  keep  your  temper  with  the  men,  let  the  poor  fello\vs 
grumble  as  they  may.  Mind  but  that,  and  fear  God,  and  all 
will  go  well." 

The  tears  were  glistening  in  Gary's  eyes  as  he  pressed 
Amyas's  hand,  and  watched  the  two  brothers  down  over  the 
side  upon  their  desperate  errand. 

They  reached  the  pebble  beach.  There  seemed  no  difficulty 
about  finding  the  path  to  the  house — so  bright  was  the  moon, 
and  so  careful  a  survey  of  the  place  had  Frank  taken.  Leaving 
the  men  with  the  boat  (Amyas  had  taken  care  that  they  should 
be  well  armed),  they  started  up  the  beach,  with  their  swords 
only.  Frank  assured  Amyas  that  they  would  find  a  path  lead- 
ing from  the  beach  up  to  the  house,  and  he  was  not  mistaken. 
They  found  it  easily,  for  it  was  made  of  white  shell  sand ;  and 
following  it  struck  into  a  "  tunal,"  or  belt  of  tall  thorny,  cac- 
tuses. Through  this  the  path  wound  in  zigzags  up  a  steep 
rocky  slope,  and  ended  at  a  wicket-gate.  They  tried  it,  and 
found  it  open. 

"  She  may  expect  us,"  whispered  Frank. 

"Impossible!" 

"  Why  not  ?  She  must  have  seen  our  ship ;  and  if,  as 
seems,  the  townsfolk  know  who  we  are,  how  much  more  must 
she  !  Yes,  doubt  it  not,  she  still  longs  to  hear  news  of  her  own 


344  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

land,  and  some  secret  sympathy  will  draw  her  down  towards 
the  sea  to-night.  See  !  the  light  is  in  the  window  still ! " 

"  But  if  not,"  said  Amyas,  who  had  no  such  expectation, 
"  what  is  your  plan  V 

"  I  have  none." 

"None?" 

"  I  have  imagined  twenty  different  ones  in  the  last  hour , 
but  all  are  equally  uncertain,  impossible.  I  have  ceased  to 
struggle — I  go  where  I  am  called,  love's  willing  victim.  If 
Heaven  accept  the  sacrifice,  it  will  provide  the  altar  and  the 
knife." 

Amyas  was  at  his  wits'  end.  Judging  of  his  brother  by 
himself,  he  had  taken  for  granted  that  Frank  had  some  well- 
concocted  scheme  for  gaining  admittance  to  the  Rose  ;  and  as 
the  wiles  of  love  were  altogether  out  of  his  province,  he  had 
followed  in  full  faith  such  a  sans-appel  as  he  held  Frank  to  be. 
But  now  he  almost  doubted  of  his  brother's  sanity,  though 
Frank's  manner  was  perfectly  collected  and  his  voice  firm. 
Amyas,  honest  fellow,  had  no  understanding  of  that  intense 
devotion,  which  so  many  in  those  days  (not  content  with  look- 
ing on  it  as  a  lofty  virtue,  and  yet  one  to  be  duly  kept  in  its 
place  by  other  duties),  prided  themselves  on  pampering  into  the 
most  fantastic  and  self-willed  excesses. 

Beautiful  folly  !  the  death-song  of  which  two  great  geniuses 
were  composing  at  that  very  moment,  each  according  to  his  light. 
For,  while  Spenser  was  embalming  in  immortal  verse  all  that 
it  contained  of  noble  and  Christian  elements,  Cervantes  sat, 
perhaps,  in  his  dungeon,  writing  with  his  left  hand  Don  Quixote, 
saddest  of  books,  in  spite  of  all  its  wit ;  the  story  of  a  pure  and 
noble  soul,  who  mistakes  this  actual  life  for  that  ideal  one  which 
he  fancies  (and  not  so  wrongly  either)  eternal  in  the  heavens : 
and  finding  instead  of  a  battlefield  for  heroes  in  God's  cause, 
nothing  but  frivolity,  heartlessness,  and  godlessness,  becomes  a 
laughing-stock, — and  dies.  One  of  the  saddest  books,  I  say 
again,  which  man  can  read. 

Amyas  hardly  dare  trust  himself  to  speak,  for  fear  of  saying 
too  much  ;  but  he  could  not  help  saying — 

"  You  are  going  to  certain  death,  Frank." 

"  Did  I  not  entreat,"  answered  he  very  quietly,  "to  go 
alone  V 

Amyas  had  half  a  mind  to  compel  him  to  return :  but  he 
feared  Frank's  obstinacy ;  and  feared,  too,  the  shame  of  return- 
ing on  board  without  having  done  anything ;  so  they  went  up 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  345 

through  the  wicket-gate,  along  a  smooth  turf  walk,  into  what 
seemed  a  pleasure-garden,  formed  by  the  hand  of  man,  or  rather 
of  woman.  For  by  the  light,  not  only  of  the  moon,  but  of  the 
innumerable  fire-flies,  which  flitted  to  and  fro  across  the  sward 
like  fiery  imps  sent  to  light  the  brothers  on  their  way,  they  could 
see  that  the  bushes  on  either  side,  and  the  trees  above  their 
heads,  were  decked  with  flowers  of  such  strangeness  and  beauty, 
that,  as  Frank  once  said  of  Barbados,  "even  the  gardens  of 
Wilton  were  a  desert  in  comparison."  All  around  were  orange 
and  lemon  trees  (probably  the  only  addition  which  man  had 
made  to  Nature's  prodigality),  the  fruit  of  which,  in  that  strange 
coloured  light  of  the  fire-flies,  flashed  in  their  eyes  like  balls  of 
burnished  gold  and  emerald ;  while  great  white  tassels  swinging 
from  every  tree  in  the  breeze  which  swept  down  the  glade,  tossed 
in  their  faces  a  fragrant  snow  of  blossoms,  and  glittering  drops 
of  perfumed  dew. 

"What  a  paradise  !"  said  Amyas  to  Frank,  "with  the  ser- 
pent in  it,  as  of  old.  Look  !" 

And  as  he  spoke,  there  dropped  slowly  down  from  a  bough, 
right  before  them,  what  seemed  a  living  chain  of  gold,  ruby,  and 
sapphire.  Both  stopped,  and  another  glance  showed  the  small 
head  and  bright  eyes  of  a  snake,  hissing  and  glaring  full  in  their 
faces. 

"  See  !"  said  Frank.  "  And  he  comes,  as  of  old,  in  the  like- 
ness of  an  angel  of  light.  Do  not  strike  it.  There  are  worse 
devils  to  be  fought  with  to-night  than  that  poor  beast."  And 
stepping  aside,  they  passed  the  snake  safely,  and  arrived  in  front 
of  the  house. 

It  was,  as  I  have  said,  a  long  low  house,  with  balconies  along 
the  upper  story,  and  the  under  part  mostly  open  to  the  wind 
The  light  was  still  burning  in  the  window. 

"Whither  now?"  said  Amyas,  in  a  tone  of  desperate  resig- 
nation. 

"  Thither !  Where  else  on  earth  V  and  Frank  pointed  to 
the  light,  trembling  from  head  to  foot,  and  pushed  on. 

"  For  Heaven's  sake  !    Look  at  the  negroes  on  the  barbecu  ! " 

It  was  indeed  time  to  stop ;  for  on  the  barbecu,  or  terrace 
of  white  plaster,  which  ran  all  round  the  front,  lay  sleeping  full 
twenty  black  figures. 

"  What  will  you  do  now  ?  You  must  step  over  them  to  gain 
an  entrance." 

"  Wait  here,  and  I  will  go  up  gently  towards  the  window. 
She  may  see  me.  She  will  see  me  as  I  step  into  the  moonlight. 


346  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  xix. 

At  least  I  know  an  air  by  which  she  will  recognise  me,  if  I  do 
but  hum  a  stave." 

"  Why,  you  do  not  even  know  that  that  light  is  hers ! — 
Down,  for  your  life  ! " 

And  Amyas  dragged  him  down  into  the  bushes  on  his  left 
hand ;  for  one  of  the  negroes,  wakening  suddenly  with  a  cry, 
had  sat  up,  and  began  crossing  himself  four  or  five  times,  in  fear 
of  "  Duppy,"  and  mumbling  various  charms,  aves,  or  what  not. 

The  light  above  was  extinguished  instantly. 

"  Did  you  see  her  V  whispered  Frank. 

"  No." 

"  I  did — the  shadow  of  the  face,  and  the  neck  !  Can  I  be 
mistaken?"  And  then,  covering  his  face  with  his  hands,  he 
murmured  to  himself,  "  Misery  !  misery !  So  near  and  yet  im- 
possible ?" 

"Would  it  be  the  less  impossible  were  you  face  to  face? 
Let  us  go  back.  We  cannot  go  up  without  detection,  even  if 
our  going  were  of  use.  Come  back,  for  God's  sake,  ere  all  is 
lost !  If  you  have  seen  her,  as  you  say,  you  know  at  least  that 
she  is  alive,  and  safe  in  his  house '  — 

"  As  his  mistress  1  or  as  his  wife  ?  Do  I  know  that  yet, 
Amyas,  and  can  I  depart  until  I  know?" 

There  was  a  few  minutes'  silence,  and  then  Amyas,  making 
one  last  attempt  to  awaken  Frank  to  the  absurdity  of  the  whole 
thing,  and  to  laugh  him,  if  possible,  out  of  it,  as  argument  had 
no  effect — 

"  My  dear  fellow,  I  am  very  hungry  and  sleepy ;  and  this 
bush  is  very  prickly ;  and  my  boots  are  full  of  ants " 

"So  are  mine. — Look  !"  and  Frank  caught  Amyas's  arm, 
and  clenched  it  tight. 

For  round  the  farther  corner  of  the  house  a  dark  cloaked 
figure  stole  gently,  turning  a  look  now  and  then  upon  the  sleep- 
ing negroes,  and  came  on  right  toward  them. 

"  Did  I  not  tell  you  she  would  come  ?"  whispered  Frank,  in 
a  triumphant  tone. 

Amyas  was  quite  bewildered ;  and  to  his  mind  the  appari- 
tion seemed  magical,  and  Frank  prophetic;  for  as  the  figure 
came  nearer,  incredulous  as  he  tried  to  be,  there  was  no  denying 
that  the  shape  and  the  walk  were  exactly  those  of  her,  to  find 
whom  they  had  crossed  the  Atlantic.  True,  the  figure  was 
somewhat  taller ;  but  then,  "  she  must  be  grown  since  I  saw 
her,"  thought  Amyas ;  and  his  heart  for  the  moment  beat  as 
fiercely  as  Frank's. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  347 

But  what  was  that  behind  her?  Her  shadow  against  the 
white  wall  of  the  house.  Not  so.  Another  figure,  cloaked 
likewise,  but  taller  far,  was  following  on  her  steps.  It  was  a 
man's.  They  could  see  that  he  wore  a  broad  sombrero.  It 
could  not  be  Don  Guzman,  for  he  was  at  sea.  Who  then  1 
Here  was  a  mystery ;  perhaps  a  tragedy.  And  both  brothers 
held  their  breaths,  while  Amyas  felt  whether  his  sword  was 
loose  in  the  sheath. 

The  Rose  (if  indeed  it  was  she)  was  within  ten  yards  of 
them,  when  she  perceived  that  she  was  followed.  She  gave  a 
little  shriek.  The  cavalier  sprang  forward,  lifted  his  hat  court- 
eously, and  joined  her,  bowing  low.  The  moonlight  was  full 
upon  his  face. 

"It  is  Eustace,  our  cousin !  How  came  he  here,  in  the 
name  of  all  the  fiends'?" 

"Eustace!  Then  that  is  she  after  all!"  said  Frank,  for- 
getting everything  else  in  her. 

And  now  flashed  across  Amyas  all  that  had  passed  between 
him  and  Eustace  in  the  moorland  inn,  and  Parracombe's  story, 
too,  of  the  suspicious  gipsy.  Eustace  had  been  beforehand 
with  them,  and  warned  Don  Guzman  !  All  was  explained 
now  :  but  how  had  he  got  hither  ? 

"  The  devil,  his  master,  sent  him  hither  on  a  broomstick, 
I  suppose  :  or  what  matter  how  ?  Here  he  is ;  and  here  we 
are,  worse  luck ! "  And,  setting  his  teeth,  Amyas  awaited  the 
end. 

The  two  came  on,  talking  earnestly,  and  walking  at  a  slow 
pace,  so  that  the  brothers  could  hear  every  word. 

"  What  shall  we  do  now  ?"  said  Frank.  "  We  have  no  right 
to  be  eavesdroppers." 

"  But  we  must  be,  right  or  none."  And  Amyas  held  him 
down  firmly  by  the  arm. 

"  But  whither  are  you  going,  then,  my  dear  madam  ?"  they 
heard  Eustace  say  in  a  wheedling  tone.  "  Can  you  wonder  if 
such  strange  conduct  should  cause  at  least  sorrow  to  your  ad- 
mirable and  faithful  husband  V 

"  Husband  !"  whispered  Frank  faintly  to  Amyas.  "Thank 
God,  thank  God  !  I  am  content.  Let  us  go." 

But  to  go  was  impossible ;  for,  as  fate  would  have  it,  the 
two  had  stopped  just  opposite  them. 

"  The  inestimable  Senor  Don  Guzman "  began  Eustace 

again. 

"  What  do  you  mean  by  praising  him  to  me  in  this  fulsome 


.'MX  WHAT  r.l-: I -T.1.L  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [CHAP.  xix. 

way,  sir  ?  Do  you  suppose  that  I  do  not  know  his  virtues 
better  than  you  V' 

"  If  you  do,  madam "  (this  was  spoken  in  a  harder  tone), 
"  it  were  wise  for  you  to  try  them  less  severely,  than  by  wan- 
ilrrinj?  down  towards  the  beach  on  the  very  night  that  you 
know  his  most  deadly  enemies  are  lying  in  wait  to  slay  him, 
plunder  his  house,  and  most  probably  to  carry  you  off  from 
him." 

"  Carry  me  off  ?     I  will  die  first !" 

"  Who  can  prove  that  to  him  ?  Appearances  are  at  least 
against  you." 

"  My  love  to  him,  and  his  trust  for  me,  sir !" 

"  His  trust  ?  Have  you  forgotten,  madam,  what  passed 
last  week,  and  why  he  sailed  yesterday  1" 

The  only  answer  was  a  burst  of  tears.  Eustace  stood 
watching  her  with  a  terrible  eye ;  but  they  could  see  his  face 
writhing  in  the  moonlight. 

"Oh !"  sobbed  she  at  last.  "And  if  I  have  been  imprudent, 
was  it  not  natural  to  wish  to  look  once  more  upon  an  English 
ship  ?  Are  you  not  English  as  well  as  I  ?  Have  you  no  long- 
ing recollections  of  the  dear  old  land  at  home  ?" 

Eustace  was  silent ;  but  his  face  worked  more  fiercely  than 
ever. 

"  How  can  he  ever  know  it  ?" 

"  Why  should  he  not  know  it  ?" 

"  Ah  !"  she  burst  out  passionately,  "why  not,  indeed,  while 
you  are  here  ?  You,  sir,  the  tempter,  you  the  eavesdropper, 
you  the  sunderer  of  loving  hearts  !  You,  serpent,  who  found 
our  home  a  paradise,  and  see  it  now  a  hell !" 

"  Do  you  dare  to  accuse  me  thus,  madam,  without  a  shadow 
of  evidence  ?" 

"  Dare  ?  I  dare  anything,  for  I  know  all !  I  have  watched 
you,  sir,  and  I  have  borne  with  you  too  long." 

"  Me,  madam,  whose  only  sin  towards  you,  as  you  should 
know  by  now,  is  to  have  loved  you  too  well  ?  Rose !  Rose  ! 
have  you  not  blighted  my  life  for  me — broken  my  heart  ?  And 
how  have  I  repaid  you  ?  How  but  by  sacrificing  myself  to  seek 
you  over  land  and  sea,  that  I  might  complete  your  conversion 
to  the  bosom  of  that  Church  where  a  Virgin  Mother  stands 
stretching  forth  soft  arms  to  embrace  her  wandering  daughter, 
and  cries  to  you  all  day  long, '  Come  unto  me,  ye  that  are 
weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest !'  And  this 
is  my  reward  !" 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  349 

"  Depart  with  your  Virgin  Mother,  sir,  and  tempt  me  no 
more  !  You  have  asked  me  what  I  dare  ;  and  I  dare  this,  upon 
my  own  ground,  and  in  my  own  garden,  I,  Donna  Rosa  de  Soto, 
to  bid  you  leave  this  place  now  and  for  ever,  after  having 
insulted  me  by  talking  of  your  love,  and  tempted  me  to  give 
up  that  faith  which  my  husband  promised  me  he  would  respect 
and  protect.  Go,  sir  !" 

The  brothers  listened  breathless  with  surprise  as  much  as 
with  rage.  Love  and  conscience,  and  perhaps,  too,  the  pride  of 
her  lofty  alliance,  had  converted  the  once  gentle  and  dreamy 
Rose  into  a  very  Roxana ;  but  it  was  only  the  impulse  of  a 
moment.  The  words  had  hardly  passed  her  lips,  when,  terrified 
at  what  she  had  said,  she  burst  into  a  fresh  flood  of  tears ; 
while  Eustace  answered  calmly, — 

"I  go,  madam  :  but  how  know  you  that  I  may  not  have 
orders,  and  that,  after  your  last  strange  speech,  my  conscience 
may  compel  me  to  obey  those  orders,  to  take  you  with  me  ?" 

"Me?  with  you?" 

"  My  heart  has  bled  for  you,  madam,  for  many  a  year.  It 
longs  now  that  it  had  bled  itself  to  death,  and  never  known  the 
last  worst  agony  of  telling  you " 

And  drawing  close  to  her  he  whispered  in  her  ear — what, 
the  brothers  heard  not — but  her  answer  was  a  shriek  which 
rang  through  the  woods,  and  sent  the  night-birds  fluttering  up 
from  every  bough  above  their  heads. 

"By  Heaven!"  said  Amyas,  "I  can  stand  this  no  longer. 
Cut  that  devil's  throat  I  must " 

"  She  is  lost  if  his  dead  body  is  found  by  her." 

" We  are  lost  if  we  stay  here,  then,"  said  Amyas ;  "for 
those  negroes  will  hurry  down  at  her  cry,  and  then  found  we 
must  be." 

"Are  you  mad,  madam,  to  betray  yourself  by  your  own 
cries  ?  The  negroes  will  be  here  in  a  moment.  I  give  you  one 
last  chance  for  life,  then  :"  and  Eustace  shouted  in  Spanish  at 
the  top  of  his  voice,  "  Help,  help,  servants  !  Your  mistress  is 
being  carried  off  by  bandits  !" 

"What  do  you  mean,  sir?" 

"  Let  your  woman's  wit  supply  the  rest :  and  forget  not 
him  who  thus  saves  you  from  disgrace." 

Whether  the  brothers  heard  the  last  words  or  not,  I  know 
not ;  but  taking  for  granted  that  Eustace  had  discovered  them, 
they  sprang  to  their  feet  at  once,  determined  to  make  one  last 
appeal,  and  then  to  sell  their  lives  as  dearly  as  they  could. 


WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  OUATRA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

Eustace  started  back  at  the  unexpected  apparition  ;  but  a 
second  glance  showed  him  Amyas's  mighty  bulk ;  and  he  spoke 
cj  ili  uly — 

"  You  see,  madam,  I  did  not  call  without  need.  Welcome, 
good  cousins.  My  charity,  as  you  perceive,  has  found  means 
to  outstrip  your  craft ;  while  the  fair  lady,  as  was  but  natural, 
has  been  true  to  her  assignation  !" 

"  Liar  !"  cried  Frank.     "She  never  knew  of  our  being 

"Credat  Judaeus!"  answered  Eustace:  but,  as  he  spoke, 
Amyas  burst  through  the  bushes  at  him.  There  was  no  time  to 
be  lost ;  and  ere  the  giant  could  disentangle  himself  from  the 
boughs  and  shrubs,  Eustace  had  slipped  off  his  long  cloak,  thrown 
it  over  Amyas's  head,  and  ran  up  the  alley  shouting  for  help. 

Mad  with  rage,  Amyas  gave  chase :  but  in  two  minutes 
more  Eustace  was  safe  among  the  ranks  of  the  negroes,  who 
came  shouting  and  jabbering  down  the  path. 

He  rushed  back.  Frank  was  just  ending  some  wild  appeal 
to  Rose — 

"  Your  conscience !  your  religion  ! " 

"  No,  never  !  I  can  face  the  chance  of  death,  but  not  the 
loss  of  him.  Go  !  for  God's  sake  leave  me  ! " 

"  You  are  lost,  then, — and  I  have  ruined  you  !" 

"  Come  off,  now  or  never,"  cried  Amyas,  clutching  him  by 
the  arm,  and  dragging  him  away  like  a  chili 

"  You  forgive  me  1"  cried  he. 

"  Forgive  you  ?"  and  she  burst  into  tears  again. 

Frank  burst  into  tears  also. 

"  Let  me  go  back,  and  die  with  her — Amyas ! — my  oath  ! 
— my  honour ! "  and  he  struggled  to  turn  back. 

Amyas  looked  back  too,  and  saw  her  standing  calmly,  with 
her  hands  folded  across  her  breast,  awaiting  Eustace  and  the 
servants ;  and  he  half  turned  to  go  back  also.  Both  saw  how 
fearfully  appearances  had  put  her  into  Eustace's  power.  Had 
he  not  a  right  to  suspect  that  they  were  there  by  her  appoint- 
ment ;  that  she  was  going  to  escape  with  them  ?  And  would 
not  Eustace  use  his  power?  The  thought  of  the  Inquisition 
crossed  their  minds.  "Was  that  the  threat  which  Eustace 
had  whispered  V  asked  he  of  Frank. 

"  It  was,"  groaned  Frank  in  answer. 

For  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  life,  Amyas  Leigh  stood 
irresolute. 

"  Back,  and  stab  her  to  the  heart  first  i"  said  Frank,  strug- 
gling to  escape  from  him. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  351 

Oh,  if  Amyas  were  but  alone,  and  Frank  safe  home  in 
England!  To  charge  the  whole  mob,  kill  her,  kill  Eustace, 
and  then  cut  his  way  back  again  to  the  ship,  or  die, — what 
matter?  as  he  must  die  some  day, — sword  in  hand!  But 
Frank ! — and  then  flashed  before  his  eyes  his  mother's  hope- 
less face ;  then  rang  in  his  ears  his  mother's  last  bequest  to 
him  of  that  frail  treasure.  Let  Eose,  let  honour,  let  the  whole 
world  perish,  he  must  save  Frank.  See  !  the  negroes  were  up 
with  her  now — past  her — away  for  life !  and  once  more  he 
dragged  his  brother  down  the  hill,  and  through  the  wicket,  only 
just  in  time ;  for  the  whole  gang  of  negroes  were  within  ten 
yards  of  them  in  full  pursuit. 

"Frank,"  said  he  sharply,  "if  you  ever  hope  to  see  your 
mother  again,  rouse  yourself,  man,  and  fight !"  And,  without 
waiting  for  an  answer,  he  turned,  and  charged  up-hill  upon  his 
pursuers,  who  saw  the  long  bright  blade,  and  fled  instantly. 

Again  he  hurried  Frank  down  the  hill ;  the  path  wound  in 
zigzags,  and  he  feared  that  the  negroes  would  come  straight 
over  the  cliff,  and  so  cut  off  his  retreat :  but  the  prickly  cactuses 
were  too  much  for  them,  and  they  were  forced  to  follow  by  the 
path,  while  the  brothers  (Frank  having  somewhat  regained  his 
senses)  turned  every  now  and  then  to  menace  them  :  but  once 
on  the  rocky  path,  stones  began  to  fly  fast ;  small  ones  fortu- 
nately, and  wide  and  wild  for  want  of  light — but  when  they 
reached  the  pebble-beach  1  Both  were  too  proud  to  run ;  but, 
if  ever  Amyas  prayed  in  his  life,  he  prayed  for  the  last  twenty 
yards  before  he  reached  the  water-mark. 

"  Now,  Frank !  down  to  the  boat  as  hard  as  you  can  run, 
while  I  keep  the  curs  back." 

"  Amyas  !  what  do  you  take  me  for  1  My  madness  brought 
you  hither :  your  devotion  shall  not  bring  me  back  without 
you." 

"Together,  then!" 

And  putting  Frank's  arm  through  his,  they  hurried  down, 
shouting  to  their  men. 

The  boat  was  not  fifty  yards  of:  but  fast  travelling  over 
the  pebbles  was  impossible,  and  long  ere  half  the  distance  was 
crossed,  the  negroes  were  on  the  beach,  and  the  storm  burst. 
A  volley  of  great  quartz  pebbles  whistled  round  their  heads. 

"  Come  on,  Frank !  for  life's  sake  !  Men,  to  the  rescue  ! 
Ah  !  what  was  that  ?" 

The  dull  crash  of  a  pebble  against  Frank's  fair  head ! 
Drooping  like  Hyacinthus  beneath  the  blow  of  the  quoit,  he 


352  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  [<  IIAI-.  xix. 

sank  on  Amyas's  arm.  The  giant  threw  him  over  his  shoulder, 
uinl  plunged  blindly  on, — himself  struck  again  and  again. 

"Fire,  men  !     Give  it  the  black  villains  :" 

The  arquebuses  crackled  from  the  boat  in  front.  What 
were  those  dull  thuds  which  answered  from  behind  ?  Echoes  ? 
No.  Over  his  head  the  caliver- balls  went  screeching.  The 
governor's  guard  have  turned  out,  followed  them  to  the  beach, 
Hxi-d  their  calivers,  and  are  firing  over  the  negroes'  heads,  as 
the  savages  rush  down  upon  the  hapless  brothers. 

If,  as  all  say,  there  are  moments  which  are  hours,  how 
many  hours  was  Amyas  Leigh  in  reaching  that  boat's  bow  ? 
Alas  !  the  negroes  are  there  as  soon  as  he,  and  the  guard,  having 
left  their  calivers,  are  close  behind  them,  sword  in  hand.  Amyas 
is  up  to  his  knees  in  water — battered  with  stones — blinded  with 
blood.  The  boat  is  swaying  off  and  on  against  the  steep  pebble- 
bank  :  he  clutches  at  it — misses — falls  headlong — rises  lialf- 
choked  with  water :  but  Frank  is  still  in  his  arms.  Another 
heavy  blow — a  confused  roar  of  shouts,  shots,  curses — a  con- 
fused mass  of  negroes  and  English,  foam  and  pebbles — and  he 
recollects  no  more. 

He  is  lying  in  the  stern -sheets  of  the  boat;  stiff,  weak, 
half  blind  with  blood.  He  looks  up ;  the  moon  is  still  bright 
overhead  :  but  they  are  away  from  the  shore  now,  for  the  wave- 
crests  are  dancing  white  before  the  land-breeze,  high  above  the 
boat's  side.  The  boat  seems  strangely  empty.  Two  men  are 
pulling  instead  of  six !  And  what  is  this  lying  heavy  across 
his  chest  ?  He  pushes,  and  is  answered  by  a  groan.  He  puts 
his  hand  down  to  rise,  and  is  answered  by  another  groan. 

"What's  this?" 

"  All  that  are  left  of  us,"  says  Simon  Evans  of  Clovelly. 

"  All  ?"  The  bottom  of  the  boat  seemed  paved  with  human 
bodies.  "Oh  God!  oh  God!"  moans  Amyas,  trying  to  rise. 
"  And  where — where  is  Frank  ?  Frank  ! " 

"Mr.  Frank !"  cries  Evans.     There  is  no  answer. 

"  Dead  ?"  shrieks  Amyas.  "  Look  for  him,  for  God's  sake, 
look  !"  and  struggling  from  under  his  living  load,  he  peers  into 
each  pale  and  bleeding  face. 

"  Where  is  he  1    Why  don't  you  speak ;  forward  there  ?" 

"Because  we  have  nought  to  say,  sir,"  answers  Evans, 
almost  surlily. 

Frank  was  not  thi-iv. 

"  Put  the  boat  about !     To  the  shore  !"  roars  Amyas. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  WHAT  BEFELL  AT  LA  GUAYRA.  353 

"  Look  over  the  gunwale,  and  judge  for  yourself,  sir  !" 

The  waves  are  leaping  fierce  and  high  before  a  furious  land- 
breeze.  Keturn  is  impossible. 

"  Cowards !  villains  !  traitors !  hounds  !  to  have  left  him 
behind." 

"  Listen  you  to  me,  Captain  Amyas  Leigh,"  says  Simon 
Evans,  resting  on  his  oar ;  "  and  hang  me  for  mutiny,  if  you 
will,  when  we're  aboard,  if  we  ever  get  there.  Isn't  it  enough 
to  bring  us  out  to  death  (as  you  knew  yourself,  sir,  for  you're 
prudent  enough)  to  please  that  poor  young  gentleman's  fancy 
about  a  wench ;  but  you  must  call  coward  an  honest  man  that 
have  saved  your  life  this  night,  and  not  a  one  of  us  but  has  his 
wound  to  show  1" 

Amyas  was  silent ;  the  rebuke  was  just. 

"  I  tell  you,  sir,  if  we've  hove  a  stone  out  of  this  boat  since 
we  got  off',  we've  hove  two  hundredweight,  and,  if  the  Lord  had 
not  fought  for  us,  she'd  have  been  beat  to  noggin-staves  there 
on  the  beach." 

"  How  did  I  come  here,  then  1" 

"  Tom  Hart  dragged  you  in  out  of  five  feet  water,  and  then 
thrust  the  boat  off,  and  had  his  brains  beat  out  for  reward.  All 
were  knocked  down  but  us  two.  So  help  me  God,  we  thought 
that  you  had  hove  Mr.  Frank  on  board  just  as  you  were  knocked 
down,  and  saw  William  Frost  drag  him  in." 

But  William  Frost  was  lying  senseless  in  the  bottom  of  the 
boat.  There  was  no  explanation.  After  all,  none  was  needed. 

"And  I  have  three  wounds  from  stones,  and  this  man 
behind  me  as  many  more,  beside  a  shot  through  his  shoulder. 
Now,  sir,  be  we  cowards  f ' 

"  You  have  done  your  duty,"  said  Amyas,  and  sank  down 
in  the  boat,  and  cried  as  if  his  heart  would  break ;  and  then 
sprang  up,  and,  wounded  as  he  was,  took  the  oar  from  Evans's 
hands.  With  weary  work  they  made  the  ship,  but  so  exhausted 
that  another  boat  had  to  be  lowered  to  get  them  alongside. 

The  alarm  being  now  given,  it  was  hardly  safe  to  remain  where 
they  were ;  and  after  a  stormy  and  sad  argument,  it  was  agreed 
to  weigh  anchor  and  stand  off  and  on  till  morning ;  for  Amyas 
refused  to  leave  the  spot  till  he  was  compelled,  though  he  had  no 
hope  (how  could  he  have  ?)  that  Frank  might  still  be  alive.  And 
perhaps  it  was  well  for  them,  as  will  appear  in  the  next  chapter, 
that  morning  did  not  find  them  at  anchor  close  to  the  town. 

However  that  may  be,  so  ended  that  fatal  venture  of  mis- 
taken chivalry. 

2  A 


354  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [CHAP.  xx. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  AND  ENGLISH   MASTIFFS. 

' '  Full  seven  long  hours  in  all  men's  sight 

This  fight  endured  sore, 
Until  our  men  so  feeble  grew, 

That  they  could  fight  no  more. 
And  then  upon  dead  horses 

Full  savourly  they  fed, 
And  drank  the  puddle  water, 

They  could  no  better  get. 

"  When  they  had  fed  so  freely 

They  kneeled  on  the  ground, 
And  gave  God  thanks  devoutly  for 

The  favour  they  had  found  ; 
Then  beating  up  their  colours, 

The  fight  they  did  renew  ; 
And  turning  to  the  Spaniards, 
A  thousand  more  they  slew." 

The  brave  Lord  WillougJiby.     1586. 

WHEN  the  sun  leaped  up  the  next  morning,  and  the  tropic  light 
flashed  suddenly  into  the  tropic  day,  Arayas  was  pacing  the 
deck,  with  dishevelled  hair  and  torn  clothes,  his  eyes  red  with 
rage  and  weeping,  his  heart  full — how  can  I  describe  it  ?  Pic- 
ture it  to  yourselves,  picture  it  to  yourselves,  you  who  have 
ever  lost  a  brother ;  and  you  who  have  not,  thank  God  that  you 
know  nothing  of  his  agony.  Full  of  impossible  projects,  he 
strode  and  staggered  up  and  down,  as  the  ship  thrashed  close- 
hauled  through  the  rolling  seas.  He  would  go  back  and  burn 
the  villa.  He  would  take  Guayra,  and  have  the  life  of  every 
man  in  it  in  return  for  his  brother's.  "  We  can  do  it,  lads  !"  he 
shouted.  "  If  Drake  took  Nombre  de  Dios,  we  can  take  La 
Guayra."  And  every  voice  shouted,  "  Yes." 

"  We  will  have  it,  Amyas,  and  have  Frank  too,  yet,"  cried 
Gary ;  but  Amyas  shook  his  head.  He  knew,  and  knew  not 
why  he  knew,  that  all  the  ports  in  New  Spain  would  never 
restore  to  him  that  one  beloved  face. 

"  Yes,  he  shall  be  well  avenged.  And  look  there  !  There 
is  the  first  crop  of  our  vengeance."  And  he  pointed  toward  tin- 
shore,  where  between  them  and  the  now  distant  peaks  of  the 
Silla,  three  sails  appeared,  not  five  miles  to  windward. 

"  There  are  the  Spanish  bloodhounds  on  our  heels,  the  same 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  355 

ships  which  we  saw  yesterday  off  Guayra.      Back,  lads,  and 
welcome  them,  if  they  were  a  dozen." 

There  was  a  murmur  of  applause  from  all  around ;  and  if 
any  young  heart  sank  for  a  moment  at  the  prospect  of  fighting 
three  ships  at  once,  it  was  awed  into  silence  by  the  cheer  which 
rose  from  all  the  older  men,  and  by  Salvation  Yeo's  stentorian 
voice. 

"  If  there  were  a  dozen,  the  Lord  is  with  us,  who  has  said, 
'  One  of  you  shall  chase  a  thousand.'  Clear  away,  lads,  and  see 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  this  day." 

"  Amen  !"  cried  Gary ;  and  the  ship  was  kept  still  closer  to 
the  wind. 

Amyas  had  revived  at  the  sight  of  battle.  He  no  longer 
felt  his  wounds,  or  his  great  sorrow ;  even  Frank's  last  angel's 
look  grew  dimmer  every  moment  as  he  bustled  about  the  deck ; 
and  ere  a  quarter  of  an  hour  had  passed,  his  voice  cried  firmly 
and  cheerfully  as  of  old — 

"  Now,  my  masters,  let  us  serve  God,  and  then  to  breakfast, 
and  after  that  clear  for  action." 

Jack  Brimblecombe  read  the  daily  prayers,  and  the  prayers 
before  a  fight  at  sea,  and  his  honest  voice  trembled,  as,  in  the 
Prayer  for  all  Conditions  of  Men  (in  spite  of  Amyas's  despair), 
he  added,  "and  especially  for  our  dear  brother  Mr.  Francis 
Leigh,  perhaps  captive  among  the  idolaters;"  and  so  they 
rose. 

"  Now,  then,"  said  Amyas,  "  to  breakfast.  A  Frenchman 
fights  best  fasting,  a  Dutchman  drunk,  an  Englishman  full,  and 
a  Spaniard  when  the  devil  is  in  him,  and  that's  always." 

"  And  good  beef  and  the  good  cause  are  a  match  for  the 
devil,"  said  Cary.  "  Come  down,  captain ;  you  must  eat  too." 

Amyas  shook  his  head,  took  the  tiller  from  the  steersman, 
and  bade  him  go  below  and  fill  himself.  Will  Cary  went  down, 
and  returned  in  five  minutes,  with  a  plate  of  bread  and  beef, 
and  a  great  jack  of  ale,  coaxed  them  down  Amyas's  throat,  as  a 
nurse  does  with  a  child,  and  then  scuttled  below  again  with 
tears  hopping  down  his  face. 

Amyas  stood  still  steering.  His  face  was  grown  seven  years 
older  in  the  last  night,  A  terrible  set  calm  was  on  him.  Woe 
to  the  man  who  came  across  him  that  day ! 

"  There  are  three  of  them,  you  see,  my  masters,"  said  he,  as 
the  crew  came  on  deck  again.  "  A  big  ship  forward,  and  two 
galleys  astern  of  her.  The  big  ship  may  keep ;  she  is  a  race 
ship,  and  if  we  can  but  recover  the  wind  of  her,  we  will  see 


350  SPANISH   1:1..  M.I  >  HOUNDS  [CHAP.  xx. 

whether  our  height  is  not  a  match  for  her  length.     We  must 
her  the  slip,  and  take  the  galleys  first." 

'*  I  thank  the  Lord,"  said  Yeo,  "  who  has  given  BO  wise  a 
heart  to  so  young  a  general ;  a  very  David  ami  Daniel,  saving 
his  presence,  lads;  and  if  any  dare  not  follow  him,  let  him  be 
as  the  men  of  Meroz  and  of  Succoth.  Amen  !  Silas  Staveley, 
smite  me  that  boy  over  the  head,  the  young  monkey;  why  is 
he  not  down  at  the  powder-room  door?" 

And  Yeo  went  about  his  gunnery,  as  one  who  knew  how  to 
do  it,  and  had  the  most  terrible  mind  to  do  it  thoroughly,  and 
the  most  terrible  faith  that  it  was  God's  work. 

So  all  fell  to ;  and  though  there  was  comparatively  little  to 
be  done,  the  ship  having  been  kept  as  far  as  could  be  in  fighting 
order  all  night,  yet  there  was  "clearing  of  decks,  lacing  of 
nettings,  making  of  bulwarks,  fitting  of  waist-cloths,  arming  of 
tops,  tallowing  of  pikes,  slinging  of  yards,  doubling  of  sheets 
and  tacks,"  enough  to  satisfy  even  the  pedantical  soul  of  Richard 
Hawkins  himself.  Amyas  took  charge  of  the  poop,  Gary  of  the 
forecastle,  and  Yeo,  as  gunner,  of  the  main-deck,  while  Drew,  as 
master,  settled  himself  in  the  waist ;  and  all  was  ready,  and 
more  than  ready,  before  the  great  ship  was  within  two  miles  of 
them. 

And  now,  while  the  mastiffs  of  England  and  the  blood- 
hounds of  Spain  are  nearing  and  nearing  over  the  rolling  surges, 
thirsting  for  each  other's  blood,  let  us  spend  a  few  minutes  at 
least  in  looking  at  them  both,  and  considering  the  causes  which 
in  those  days  enabled  the  English  to  face  and  conquer  arma- 
ments immensely  superior  in  size  and  number  of  ships,  and  to 
boast,  that  in  the  whole  Spanish  war,  but  one  queen's  ship,  the 
Revenge,  and  (if  I  recollect  right)  but  one  private  man-of-war, 
Sir  Richard  Hawkins's  Dainty,  had  ever  struck  their  colours  to 
the  enemy. 

What  was  it  which  enabled  Sir  Richard  Grenvile's  Revenge, 
in  his  last  fearful  fight  off  the  Azores,  to  endure,  for  twelve 
hours  before  she  struck,  the  attack  of  eight  Spanish  armadas,  of 
which  two  (three  times  her  own  burden)  sank  at  her  side ;  and 
after  all  her  masts  were  gone,  and  she  had  been  boarded  three 
times  without  success,  to  defy  to  the  last  the  whole  fleet  of  fifty- 
four  sail,  which  lay  around  her,  waiting  for  her  to  sink,  "like 
dogs  around  the  dying  forest  king"? 

"What  enaliled  young  Richard  Hawkins's  Dainty,  though 
half  her  guns  were  useless  through  the  carelessness  or  treachery 
of  the  gunner,  to  maintain  for  three  days  a  running  fight  with 


CHAP,  xx.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  357 

two  Spaniards  of  equal  size  with  her,  double  the  weight  of  metal, 
and  ten  times  the  number  of  men  1 

What  enabled  Sir  George  Gary's  illustrious  ship,  the  Con- 
tent, to  fight  single-handed,  from  seven  in  the  morning  till  eleven 
at  night,  with  four  great  armadas  and  two  galleys,  though  her 
heaviest  gun  was  but  one  nine-pounder,  and  for  many  hours  she 
had  but  thirteen  men  fit  for  service  1 

What  enabled,  in  the  very  year  of  which  I  write,  those  two 
"  valiant  Turkey  Merchantmen  of  London,  the  Merchant  Royal 
and  the  Tobie,"  with  their  three  small  consorts,  to  cripple,  off 
Pantellaria  in  the  Mediterranean,  the  whole  fleet  of  Spanish 
galleys  sent  to  intercept  them,  and  return  triumphant  through 
the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  1 

And  lastly,  what  in  the  fight  of  1588,  whereof  more  here- 
after, enabled  the  English  fleet  to  capture,  destroy,  and  scatter 
that  Great  Armada,  with  the  loss  (but  not  the  capture)  of  one 
pinnace,  and  one  gentleman  of  note  1 

There  were  more  causes  than  one :  the  first  seems  to  have 
lain  in  the  build  of  the  English  ships ;  the  second  in  their 
superior  gunnery  and  weight  of  metal ;  the  third  (without  which 
the  first  would  have  been  useless)  in  the  hearts  of  the  English 
men. 

The  English  ship  was  much  shorter  than  the  Spanish ;  and 
this  (with  the  rig  of  those  days)  gave  them  an  ease  in  man- 
O3uvring,  which  utterly  confounded  their  Spanish  foes.  "  The 
English  ships  in  the  fight  of  1588,"  says  Camden,  "charged  the 
enemy  with  marvellous  agility,  and  having  discharged  their 
broadsides,  flew  forth  presently  into  the  deep,  and  levelled  their 
shot  directly,  without  missing,  at  those  great  ships  of  the  Span- 
iards, which  were  altogether  heavy  and  unwieldy."  Moreover, 
the  Spanish  fashion,  in  the  West  Indies  at  least,  though  not  in 
the  ships  of  the  Great  Armada,  was,  for  the  sake  of  carrying 
merchandise,  to  build  their  men-of-war  flush-decked,  or  as  it  was 
called  "race"  (raz&),  which  left  those  on  deck  exposed  and 
open ;  while  the  English  fashion  was  to  heighten  the  ship  as 
much  as  possible  at  stem  and  stern,  both  by  the  sweep  of  her 
lines,  and  also  by  stockades  ("close  fights  and  cage- works")  on 
the  poop  and  forecastle,  thus  giving  to  the  men  a  shelter,  which 
was  further  increased  by  strong  bulkheads  ("cobridgeheads") 
across  the  main-deck  below,  dividing  the  ship  thus  into  a  number 
of  separate  forts,  fitted  with  swivels  ("bases,  fowlers,  and  mur- 
derers") and  loopholed  for  musketry  and  arrows. 

But  the  great  source  of  superiority  was,  after  all,  in  the  men 


.T>S  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [.  HAP.  xx. 

themselves.  The  English  sailor  was  then,  as  now,  a  <|uit<-  am 
phihious  and  all-cunning  animal,  capable  of  turning  his  hand  to 
r vi T\  thing,  from  needlework  and  carpentry  to  gunnery  or  hand- 
to-hand  blows;  and  he  was,  moreover,  one  of  a  nation,  < 
citi/cn  of  which  was  not  merely  permitted  to  carry  arms,  but 
compelled  by  law  to  practise  from  childhood  the  use  of  the  bow, 
and  accustomed  to  consider  sword-play  and  quarter-staff  as  a 
necessary  part  and  parcel  of  education,  and  the  pastime  of  every 
leisure  hour.  The  "  fiercest  nation  upon  earth,"  as  they  were 
tin 'ii  called,  and  the  freest  also,  each  man  of  them  fought  for 
himself  with  the  self-help  and  self-respect  of  a  Yankee  ranger, 
and  once  bidden  to  do  his  work,  was  trusted  to  carry  it  out  by 
his  own  wit  as  best  he  could.  In  one  word,  he  was  a  free  man. 

The  English  officers,  too,  as  now,  lived  on  terms  of  sympathy 
with  their  men  unknown  to  the  Spaniards,  who  raised  between 
the  commander  and  the  commanded  absurd  barriers  of  rank  and 
blood,  which  forbade  to  his  pride  any  labour  but  that  of  fighting. 
The  English  officers,  on  the  other  hand,  brought  up  to  the  same 
athletic  sports,  the  same  martial  exercises,  as  their  men,  were 
not  ashamed  to  care  for  them,  to  win  their  friendship,  even  on 
emergency  to  consult  their  judgment ;  and  used  their  rank,  not 
to  differ  from  their  men,  but  to  outvie  them;  not  merely  to 
command  and  be  obeyed,  but,  like  Homer's  heroes,  or  the  old 
Norse  Vikings,  to  lead  and  be  followed.  Drake  touched  the 
true  mainspring  of  English  success  when  he  once  (in  his  voyage 
round  the  world)  indignantly  rebuked  some  coxcomb  gentlemen- 
adventurers  with — "I  should  like  to  see  the  gentleman  that 
will  refuse  to  set  his  hand  to  a  rope.  I  must  have  the  gentle- 
men to  hale  and  draw  with  the  mariners."  But  those  were  days 
in  which  her  Majesty's  service  was  as  little  overridden  by  absurd 
rules  of  seniority,  as  by  that  etiquette  which  is  at  once  the 
counterfeit  and  the  ruin  of  true  discipline.  Under  Elizabeth 
and  her  ministers,  a  brave  and  a  shrewd  man  was  certain  of  pro- 
motion, let  his  rank  or  his  age  be  what  they  might ;  the  true 
honour  of  knighthood  covered  once  and  for  all  any  lowliness  of 
birth ;  and  the  merchant  service  (in  which  all  the  best  sea- 
captains,  even  those  of  noble  blood,  were  more  or  less  engaged) 
was  then  a  nursery,  not  only  for  seamen,  but  for  warjiors,  in 
days  when  Spanish  and  Portuguese  traders  (whenever  they  had 
a  chance)  got  rid  of  English  competition  by  salvos  of  cannon- 
shot. 

Hence,  as  I  have  said,  that  strong  fellow-feeling  between 
officers  and  men ;  and  hence  mutinies  (as  Sir  Richard  Hawkins 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  359 

tells  us)  were  all  but  unknown  in  the  English  ships,  while  in 
the  Spanish  they  broke  out  on  every  slight  occasion.  For  the 
Spaniards,  by  some  suicidal  pedantry,  had  allowed  their  navy  to 
be  crippled  by  the  same  despotism,  etiquette,  and  official  routine, 
by  which  the  whole  nation  was  gradually  frozen  to  death  in  the 
course  of  the  next  century  or  two ;  forgetting  that,  fifty  years 
before,  Cortez,  Pizarro,  and  the  early  Conquistadores  of  America 
had  achieved  their  miraculous  triumphs  on  the  exactly  opposite 
method ;  by  that  very  fellow-feeling  between  commander  and 
commanded  by  which  the  English  were  now  conquering  them 
in  their  turn. 

Their  navy  was  organised  on  a  plan  complete  enough ;  but 
on  one  which  was,  as  the  event  proved,  utterly  fatal  to  their 
prowess  and  unanimity,  and  which  made  even  their  courage  and 
honour  useless  against  the  assaults  of  free  men.  "  They  do,  in 
their  armadas  at  sea,  divide  themselves  into  three  bodies;  to 
wit,  soldiers,  mariners,  and  gunners.  The  soldiers  and  officers 
watch  and  ward  as  if  on  shore ;  and  this  is  the  only  duty  they 
undergo,  except  cleaning  their  arms,  wherein  they  are  not  over 
curious.  The  gunners  are  exempted  from  all  labour  and  care, 
except  about  the  artillery;  and  these  are  either  Almaines, 
Flemings,  or  strangers ;  for  the  Spaniards  are  but  indifferently 
practised  in  this  art.  The  mariners  are  but  as  slaves  to  the  rest, 
to  moil  and  to  toil  day  and  night ;  and  those  but  few  and  bad, 
and  not  suffered  to  sleep  or  harbour  under  the  decks.  For  in 
fair  or  foul  weather,  in  storms,  sun,  or  rain,  they  must  pass  void 
of  covert  or  succour." 

This  is  the  account  of  one  who  was  long  prisoner  on  board 
their  ships ;  let  it  explain  itself,  while  I  return  to  my  tale. 
For  the  great  ship  is  now  within  two  musket-shots  of  the  Rose, 
with  the  golden  flag  of  Spain  floating  at  her  poop;  and  her 
trumpets  are  shouting  defiance  up  the  breeze,  from  a  dozen 
brazen  throats,  which  two  or  three  answer  lustily  from  the  Rose, 
from  whose  poop  flies  the  flag  of  England,  and  from  her  fore 
the  arms  of  Leigh  and  Gary  side  by  side,  and  over  them  the 
ship  and  bridge  of  the  good  town  of  Bideford.  And  then 
Amyas  calls — 

"  Now,  silence  trumpets,  waits,  play  up  !  '  Fortune  my 
foe  !'  and  God  and  the  Queen  be  with  us  !" 

Whereon  (laugh  not,  reader,  for  it  was  the  fashion  of  those 
musical,  as  well  as  valiant  days)  up  rose  that  noble  old  favourite 
of  good  Queen  Bess,  from  cornet  and  sackbut,  fife  and  drum ; 
while  Parson  Jack,  who  had  taken  his  stand  with  the  musicians 


MO  SPANISH   r.LOODHOUNI'S  f,  HAP.  xx. 

mi  tin-  ]H>M|I,  \\-urkril  a\v;iy  lustily  at  his  violin,  and  like  Volker 
of  the  Nilxihingen  Lied. 

••  \Vell  played,  Jack;  thy  elbow  flies  like  a  lamb's  tail,'' 
sai<  I  Amyas,  forcing  a  jest. 

"  It  shall  fly  to  a  better  fiddle-bow  presently,  sir,  an  I  have 
the  luck 

"  Steady,  helm  !"  said  Amyas.     "  What  is  he  after  now  ?" 

The  Spaniard,  who  had  been  coming  upon  them  right  down 
the  wind  under  a  press  of  sail,  took  in  his  light  canvas. 

"  Hi-  don't  know  what  to  make  of  our  waiting  for  him  so 
bold,"  said  the  helmsman. 

"  He  does  though,  and  means  to  fight  us,"  cried  another. 
"  See,  he  is  hauling  up  the  foot  of  his  mainsail :  but  he  wants 
to  keep  the  wind  of  us." 

"  Let  him  try,  then,"  quoth  Arayas.  "  Keep  her  closer  still. 
Let  no  one  fire  till  we  are  about.  Man  the  starboard  guns ;  to 
starboard,  and  wait,  all  small  arm  men.  Pass  the  order  down 
to  the  gunner,  and  bid  all  fire  high,  and  take  the  rigging." 

Bang  went  one  of  the  Spaniard's  bow  guns,  and  the  shot 
went  wide.  Then  another  and  another,  while  the  men  fidgeted 
about,  looking  at  the  priming  of  their  muskets,  and  loosened 
their  arrows  in  the  sheaf. 

"  Lie  down,  men,  and  sing  a  psalm.  When  I  want  you, 
I'll  call  you.  Closer  still,  if  you  can,  helmsman,  and  we  will 
try  a  short  ship  against  a  long  one.  We  can  sail  two  points 
nearer  the  wind  than  he." 

As  Amyas  had  calculated,  the  Spaniard  would  gladly 
enough  have  stood  across  the  Rose's  bows,  but  knowing  the 
English  readiness,  dare  not  for  fear  of  being  raked ;  so  her  only 
plan,  if  she  did  not  intend  to  shoot  past  her  foe  down  to  lee- 
ward, was  to  put  her  head  close  to  the  wind,  and  wait  for  her 
on  the  same  tack. 

Amyas  laughed  to  himself.  "  Hold  on  yet  awhile.  More 
ways  of  killing  a  cat  than  choking  her  with  cream.  Drew,  there, 
are  your  men  ready  ?" 

"Ay,  ay,  sir!"  and  on  they  went,  closing  fast  with  the 
Spaniard,  till  within  a  pistol-shot. 

"Ready  about !"  and  about  she  went  like  an  eel,  and  ran 
upon  the  opposite  tark  ri.u'ht  under  the  Spaniard's  stern.  The 
Spaniard,  astounded  at  the  quickness  of  the  manoeuvre,  hesitated 
a  moment,  and  then  tried  to  get  about  also,  as  his  only  chance  ; 
but  it  was  too  late,  and  while  his  lumbering  length  was  still 
hanging  in  the  wind's  eye,  Amyas's  bowsprit  had  all  but  scraped 


CHAP,  xx.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  361 

his  quarter,  and  the  Rose  passed  slowly  across  his  stern  at  ten 
yards'  distance. 

"Now,  then!"  roared  Amyas.  "Fire,  and  with  a  will! 
Have  at  her,  archers :  have  at  her,  muskets  all ! "  and  in  an 
instant  a  storm  of  bar  and  chain-shot,  round  and  canister,  swept 
the  proud  Don  from  stem  to  stern,  while  through  the  white 
cloud  of  smoke  the  musket-balls,  and  the  still  deadlier  cloth- 
yard  arrows,  whistled  and  rushed  upon  their  venomous  errand. 
Down  went  the  steersman,  and  every  soul  who  manned  the 
poop.  Down  went  the  mizzen  topmast,  in  went  the  stern-windows 
and  quarter-galleries ;  and  as  the  smoke  cleared  away,  the  gor- 
geous painting  of  the  Madre  Dolorosa,  with  her  heart  full  of  seven 
swords,  which,  in  a  gilded  frame,  bedizened  the  Spanish  stern, 
was  shivered  in  splinters ;  while,  most  glorious  of  all,  the  golden 
flag  of  Spain,  which  the  last  moment  flaunted  above  their  heads, 
hung  trailing  in  the  water.  The  ship,  her  tiller  shot  away,  and 
her  helmsman  killed,  staggered  helplessly  a  moment,  and  then 
fell  up  into  the  wind. 

"Well  done,  men  of  Devon!"  shouted  Amyas,  as  cheers 
rent  the  welkin. 

"  She  has  struck,"  cried  some,  as  the  deafening  hurrahs 
died  away. 

"  Not  a  bit,"  said  Amyas.  "  Hold  on,  helmsman,  and  leave 
her  to  patch  her  tackle  while  we  settle  the  galleys." 

On  they  shot  merrily,  and  long  ere  the  armada  could  get 
herself  to  rights  again,  were  two  good  miles  to  windward,  with 
the  galleys  sweeping  down  fast  upon  them. 

And  two  venomous -looking  craft  they  were,  as  they  shot 
through  the  short  chopping  sea  upon  some  forty  oars  apiece, 
stretching  there  long  sword-fish  snouts  over  the  water,  as  if 
snuffing  for  their  prey.  Behind  this  long  snout,  a  strong  square 
forecastle  was  crammed  with  soldiers,  and  the  muzzles  of  cannon 
grinned  out  through  port -holes,  not  only  in  the  sides  of  the 
forecastle,  but  forward  in  the  line  of  the  galley's  course,  thus 
enabling  her  to  keep  up  a  continual  fire  on  a  ship  right  ahead. 

The  long  low  waist  was  packed  full  of  the  slaves,  some  five 
or  six  to  each  oar,  and  down  the  centre,  between  the  two  banks, 
the  English  could  see  the  slave-drivers  walking  up  and  down  a 
long  gangway,  whip  in  hand.  A  raised  quarter-deck  at  the 
stern  held  more  soldiers,  the  sunlight  flashing  merrily  upon 
their  armour  and  their  gun-barrels ;  as  they  neared,  the  English 
could  hear  plainly  the  cracks  of  the  whips,  and  the  yells  as  of 
wild  beasts  which  answered  them ;  the  roll  and  rattle  of  the 


362  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [.  HAP.  xx. 

oars,  and  the  loud  "  Ha !"  of  the  slaves  which  accomi>aiiinl 
••very  stroke,  and  the  oaths  and  curses  of  the  drivers;  while  a 
sickening  musky  smell,  as  of  a  pock  of  kennelled  hounds,  came 
down  the  wind  from  off  those  dens  of  misery.  No  wondrr  if 
many  a  young  heart  shuddered  as  it  faced,  for  the  first  time, 
the  horrible  reality  of  those  floating  hells,  the  cruelties  whereof 
had  rang  so  often  in  English  ears,  from  the  stories  of  their  own 
countrymen,  who  had  passed  them,  fought  them,  and  now  ami 
then  passed  years  of  misery  on  board  of  them.  Who  knew  but 
what  there  might  be  English  among  those  sun -browned  half- 
nuknl  masses  of  panting  wretches? 

"Must  we  fire  upon  the  slaves?"  asked  more  than  one,  as 
the  thought  crossed  him. 

Amyas  sighed. 

"  Spare  them  all  you  can,  in  God's  name :  but  if  they  try 
to  run  us  down,  rake  them  we  must,  and  God  forgive  us." 

The  two  galleys  came  on  abreast  of  each  other,  some  forty 
yards  apart  To  outmanoeuvre  their  oars  as  he  had  done  the 
ship's  sails,  Amyas  knew  was  impossible.  To  run  from  them, 
was  to  be  caught  between  them  and  the  ship. 

He  made  up  his  mind,  as  usual,  to  the  desperate  game. 

"  Lay  her  head  up  in  the  wind,  helmsman,  and  we  will  wait 
for  them." 

They  were  now  within  musket -shot,  and  opened  fire  from 
their  bow-guns ;  but,  owing  to  the  chopping  sea,  their  aim  was 
wild.  Amyas,  as  usual,  withheld  his  fire. 

The  men  stood  at  quarters  with  compressed  lips,  not  know- 
ing what  was  to  come  next.  Amyas,  towering  motionless  on 
the  quarter-deck,  gave  his  orders  calmly  and  decisively.  The 
men  saw  that  he  trusted  himself,  and  trusted  him  accordingly. 

The  Spaniards,  seeing  him  wait  for  them,  gave  a  shout  of 
joy — was  the  Englishman  mad  ?  And  the  two  galleys  converged 
rapidly,  intending  to  strike  him  full,  one  on  each  bow. 

They  were  within  forty  yards — another  minute,  and  the 
shock  would  come.  The  Englishman's  helm  went  up,  his  yards 
creaked  round,  and  gathering  way,  he  plunged  upon  the  larboard 
galley. 

"  A  dozen  gold  nobles  to  him  who  brings  down  the  steers- 
man !"  shouted  Gary,  who  had  his  cue. 

And  a  flight  of  arrows  from  the  forecastle  rattled  upon  the 
galley's  quarter-deck. 

Hit  or  not  hit,  the  steersman  lost  his  nerve,  and  shrank 
from  the  coming  shock  The  galley's  helm  went  up  to  port, 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  363 

and  her  beak  slid  all  but  harmless  along  Amyas's  bow ;  a  long 
dull  grind,  and  then  loud  crack  on  crack,  as  the  Eose  sawed 
slowly  through  the  bank  of  oars  from  stem  to  stern,  hurling  the 
wretched  slaves  in  heaps  upon  each  other ;  and  ere  her  mate  on 
the  other  side  could  swing  round,  to  strike  him  in  his  new  posi- 
tion, Amyas's  whole  broadside,  great  and  small,  had  been  poured 
into  her  at  pistol-shot,  answered  by  a  yell  which  rent  their  ears 
and  hearts. 

"Spare  the  slaves!  Fire  at  the  soldiers!"  cried  Amyas; 
but  the  work  was  too  hot  for  much  discrimination ;  for  the  lar- 
board galley,  crippled  but  not  undaunted,  swung  round  across 
his  stern,  and  hooked  herself  venomously  on  to  him. 

It  was  a  move  more  brave  than  wise ;  for  it  prevented  the 
other  galley  from  returning  to  the  attack  without  exposing  her- 
self a  second  time  to  the  English  broadside ;  and  a  desperate 
attempt  of  the  Spaniards  to  board  at  once  through  the  stern- 
ports,  and  up  the  quarter  was  met  with  such  a  demurrer  of 
shot  and  steel,  that  they  found  themselves  in  three  minutes 
again  upon  the  galley's  poop,  accompanied,  to  their  intense  dis- 
gust, by  Amyas  Leigh  and  twenty  English  swords. 

Five  minutes'  hard  cutting,  hand  to  hand,  and  the  poop 
was  clear.  The  soldiers  in  the  forecastle  had  been  able  to 
give  them  no  assistance,  open  as  they  lay  to  the  arrows  and 
musketry  from  the  Rose's  lofty  stern.  Amyas  rushed  along  the 
central  gangway,  shouting  in  Spanish,  "  Freedom  to  the  slaves  ! 
death  to  the  masters !"  clambered  into  the  forecastle,  followed 
close  by  his  swarm  of  wasps,  and  set  them  so  good  an  example 
how  to  use  their  stings,  that  in  three  minutes  more  there  was 
not  a  Spaniard  on  board  who  was  not  dead  or  dying. 

"  Let  the  slaves  free  !"  shouted  he.  "  Throw  us  a  hammer 
down,  men.  Hark  !  there's  an  English  voice  !" 

There  is  indeed.  From  amid  the  wreck  of  broken  oars  and 
writhing  limbs,  a  voice  is  shrieking  in  broadest  Devon  to  the 
master,  who  is  looking  over  the  side. 

"  Oh,  Robert  Drew  !  Robert  Drew !  Come  down,  and  take 
me  out  of  hell ! " 

"  Who  be  you,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  ! " 

"Don't  you  mind  William  Prust,  that  Captain  Hawkins 
left  behind  in  the  Honduras,  years  and  years  agone  ?  There's 
nine  of  us  aboard,  if  your  shot  hasn't  put  'em  out  of  their 
misery.  Come  down,  if  you've  a  Christian  heart,  come  down  ! ' 

Utterly  forgetful  of  all  discipline,  Drew  leaps  down  hammer 
in  hand,  and  the  two  old  comrades  rush  into  each  other's  arms. 


364  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [CHAP.  XX. 

Why  make  a  long  story  of  what  took  but  five  minutes  to  do? 
The  niiu-  mm  (hu-kily  none  of  them  wounded)  are  freed,  and 
helped  on  board,  to  be  hugged  and  kissed  by  old  comrades  and 
young  kinsmen  ;  while  the  remaining  slaves,  furnished  with  a 
couple  of  hammers,  are  told  to  free  themselves  and  help  the 
English.  The  wretches  answer  by  a  shout ;  and  Amyas,  once 
more  safe  on  board  again,  dashes  after  the  other  galley,  whidi 
has  been  hovering  out  of  reach  of  his  guns :  but  there  is  no  need 
to  trouble  himself  about  her ;  sickened  with  what  she  lias  got, 
she  is  struggling  right  up  wind,  leaning  over  to  one  side,  and 
seemingly  ready  to  sink. 

"  Are  there  any  English  on  board  of  her  ?"  asks  Amyas,  loth 
to  lose  the  chance  of  freeing  a  countryman. 

"  Never  a  one,  sir,  thank  God." 

So  they  set  to  work  to  repair  damages ;  while  the  liberated 
slaves,  having  shifted  some  of  the  galley's  oars,  pull  away  after 
their  comrade ;  and  that  with  such  a  will,  that  in  ten  minutes 
they  have  caught  her  up,  and  careless  of  the  Spaniard's  fire, 
boarded  her  en  masse,  with  yells  as  of  a  thousand  wolves.  There 
will  be  fearful  vengeance  taken  on  those  tyrants,  unless  they 
play  the  man  this  day. 

And  in  the  meanwhile  half  the  crew  are  clothing,  feeding, 
questioning,  caressing  those  nine  poor  fellows  thus  snatched  from 
living  death :  and  Yeo,  hearing  the  news,  has  rushed  up  on  deck 
to  welcome  his  old  comrades,  and — 

"Is  Michael  Heard,  my  cousin,  here  among  you?" 

Yes,  Michael  Heard  is  there,  white-headed  rather  from  misery 
than  age ;  and  the  embracings  and  questionings  begin  afresh. 

"  Where  is  my  wife,  Salvation  Yeo  ?" 

"With  the  Lord." 

"  Amen  !"  says  the  old  man,  with  a  short  shudder. 

"  I  thought  so  much ;  and  my  two  boys  ?" 

"  With  the  Lord." 

The  old  man  catches  Yeo  by  the  arm. 

"  How,  then  ?"     It  is  Yeo's  turn  to  shudder  now. 

"Killed  in  Panama,  fighting  the  Spaniards;  sailing  with 
Mr.  Oxenham ;  and  'twas  I  led  'em  into  it.  May  God  and  you 
forgive  me !" 

"  They  couldn't  die  better,  cousin  Yeo.  Where's  my  girl 
Grace?" 

"Died  in  childbed." 

"Any  childer?" 

"  No." 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  365 

The  old  man  covers  his  face  with  his  hands  for  a  while. 

"  Well,  I've  been  alone  with  the  Lord  these  fifteen  years,  so 
I  must  not  whine  at  being  alone  a  while  longer — 't  won't  be  long." 

"  Put  this  coat  on  your  back,  uncle,"  says  some  one. 

"  No ;  no  coats  for  me.  Naked  came  I  into  the  world,  and 
naked  I  go  out  of  it  this  day,  if  I  have  a  chance.  You'm  better 
to  go  to  your  work,  lads,  or  the  big  one  will  have  the  wind  of 
you  yet." 

"  So  she  will,"  said  Amyas,  who  has  overheard;  but  so  great 
is  the  curiosity  on  all  hands,  that  he  has  some  trouble  in  getting 
the  men  to  quarters  again ;  indeed,  they  only  go  on  condition  of 
parting  among  themselves  with  them  the  new-comers,  each  to 
tell  his  sad  and  strange  story.  How  after  Captain  Hawkins, 
constrained  by  famine,  had  put  them  ashore,  they  wandered  in 
misery  till  the  Spaniards  took  them ;  how,  instead  of  hanging 
them  (as  they  at  first  intended),  the  Dons  fed  and  clothed  them, 
and  allotted  them  as  servants  to  various  gentlemen  about  Mexico, 
where  they  throve,  turned  their  hands  (like  true  sailors)  to  all 
manner  of  trades,  and  made  much  money,  and  some  of  them 
were  married,  even  to  women  of  wealth ;  so  that  all  went  well, 
until  the  fatal  year  1574,  when,  "much  against  the  minds  of 
many  of  the  Spaniards  themselves,  that  cruel  and  bloody  In- 
quisition was  established  for  the  first  time  in  the  Indies;"  and 
how,  from  that  moment  their  lives  were  one  long  tragedy ;  how 
they  were  all  imprisoned  for  a  year  and  a  half,  not  for  proselyt- 
ising, but  simply  for  not  believing  in  transubstantiation ;  racked 
again  and  again,  and  at  last  adjudged  to  receive  publicly,  on 
Good  Friday,  1575,  some  three  hundred,  some  one  hundred 
stripes,  and  to  serve  in  the  galleys  for  six  or  ten  years  each ; 
while,  as  the  crowning  atrocity  of  the  Moloch  sacrifice,  three  of 
them  were  burnt  alive  in  the  market-place  of  Mexico ;  a  story 
no  less  hideous  than  true,  the  details  whereof  whoso  list  may 
read  in  Hakluyt's  third  volume,  as  told  by  Philip  Miles,  one  of 
that  hapless  crew ;  as  well  as  the  adventures  of  Job  Hortop,  a 
messmate  of  his,  who,  after  being  sent  to  Spain,  and  seeing  two 
more  of  his  companions  burnt  alive  at  Seville,  was  sentenced  to 
row  in  the  galleys  ten  years,  and  after  that  to  go  to  the  "  ever- 
lasting prison  remediless;"  from  which  doom,  after  twenty-three 
years  of  slavery,  he  was  delivered  by  the  galleon  Dudley,  and 
came  safely  home  to  Redriff. 

The  fate  of  Hortop  and  his  comrades  was,  of  course,  still 
unknown  to  the  rescued  men;  but  the  history  even  of  then- 
party  was  not  likely  to  improve  the  good  feeling  of  the  crew 


3f>6  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNIK  [CHAP.  XX. 

toward  the  Spanish  ship  which  was  two  miles  to  kvwanl  "f 
them,  and  which  must  be  fought  with,  or  fled  from,  before  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  was  past.  So,  kneeling  down  upon  the  deck, 
as  many  a  brave  crew  in  those  days  did  in  like  case,  they  "gave 
God  thanks  devoutly  for  the  favour  they  had  found ;"  and  then 
with  one  accord,  at  Jack's  leading,  sang  one  and  all  the  ninety- 
fourth  Psalm  : l 

"  Oh,  Lord,  thou  dost  revenge  all  wrong ; 
Vengeance  belongs  to  thee,"  etc. 

And  then  again  to  quarters ;  for  half  the  day's  work,  or 
more  than  half,  still  remained  to  be  done ;  and  hardly  were  the 
decks  cleared  afresh,  and  the  damage  repaired  as  best  it  could 
be,  when  she  came  ranging  up  to  leeward,  as  closehauled  as  she 
could. 

She  was,  as  I  said,  a  long  flush -decked  ship  of  full  five 
hundred  tons,  more  than  double  the  size,  in  fact,  of  the  Rose, 
though  not  so  lofty  in  proportion  ;  and  many  a  bold  heart  beat 
loud,  and  no  shame  to  them,  as  she  began  firing  away  merrily, 
determined,  as  all  well  knew,  to  wipe  out  in  English  blood  the 
disgrace  of  her  late  foil. 

"Never  mind,  my  merry  masters,"  said  Amyas,  "she  has 
quantity  and  we  quality." 

"  That's  true,"  said  one,  "  for  one  honest  man  is  worth  two 
rogues." 

"  And  one  culverin  three  of  their  footy  little  ordnance,"  said 
another.  "  So  when  you  will,  captain,  and  have  at  her." 

"  Let  her  come  abreast  of  us,  and  don't  burn  powder.  We 
have  the  wind,  and  can  do  what  we  like  with  her.  Serve  the 
men  out  a  horn  of  ale  all  round,  steward,  and  all  take  your 
time." 

So  they  waited  for  five  minutes  more,  and  then  set  to  work 
quietly,  after  the  fashion  of  English  mastiffs,  though,  like  those 
mastiffs,  they  waxed  right  mad  before  three  rounds  were  fired, 
and  the  white  splinters  (sight  beloved)  began  to  crackle  and  fly. 

Amyas,  having,  as  he  had  said,  the  wind,  and  being  able  to 
go  nearer  it  than  the  Spaniard,  kept  his  place  at  easy  point- 
blank  range  for  his  two  eighteen-pounder  culverins,  which  Yeo 
and  his  mate  worked  with  terrible  effect. 

"  We  are  lacking  her  through  and  through  every  shot,"  said 

1  The  crew  of  the  Tobie,  cast  away  on  the  Barbary  coast  a  few  years 
after,  "  began  with  heavy  hearts  to  sing  the  12th  Psalm,  '  Help,  Lord,  for 
good  and  godly  men,'  etc.  Howbeit,  ere  we  had  finished  four  verses,  the 
waves  of  the  sea  had  stopped  the  breaths  of  most." 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  367 

he.  "  Leave  the  small  ordnance  alone  yet  awhile,  and  we  shall 
sink  her  without  them." 

"  Whing,  whing,"  went  the  Spaniard's  shot,  like  so  many 
humming-tops,  through  the  rigging  far  above  their  heads ;  for 
the  ill -constructed  ports  of  those  days  prevented  the  guns 
from  hulling  an  enemy  who  was  to  windward,  unless  close 
alongside. 

"  Blow,  jolly  breeze,"  cried  one,  "  and  lay  the  Don  over  all 
thou  canst. — What  the  murrain  is  gone,  aloft  there  V 

Alas !  a  crack,  a  flap,  a  rattle ;  and  blank  dismay !  An 
unlucky  shot  had  cut  the  foremast  (already  wounded)  in  two, 
and  all  forward  was  a  mass  of  dangling  wreck. 

"Forward,  and  cut  away  the  wreck!"  said  Amyas,  un- 
moved. "  Small  arm  men,  be  ready.  He  will  be  aboard  of  us 
in  five  minutes !" 

It  was  too  true.  The  Rose,  unmanageable  from  the  loss  of 
her  head-sail,  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  Spaniard ;  and  the  archers 
and  musqueteers  had  hardly  time  to  range  themselves  to  lee- 
ward, when  the  Madre  Dolorosa's  chains  were  grinding  against 
the  Rose's,  and  grapples  tossed  on  board  from  stem  to  stern. 

"Don't  cut  them  loose  !"  roared  Amyas.  "Let  them  stay 
and  see  the  fun  !  Now,  dogs  of  Devon,  show  your  teeth,  and 
hurrah  for  God  and  the  Queen  !" 

And  then  began  a  fight  most  fierce  and  fell :  the  Spaniards, 
according  to  their  fashion,  attempting  to  board,  the  English, 
amid  fierce  shouts  of  "God  and  the  Queen!"  "God  and  St. 
George  for  England  ! "  sweeping  them  back  by  showers  of  arrows 
and  musquet  balls,  thrusting  them  down  with  pikes,  hurling 
grenades  and  stink-pots  from  the  tops ;  while  the  swivels  on 
both  sides  poured  their  grape,  and  bar,  and  chain,  and  the  great 
main-deck  guns,  thundering  muzzle  to  muzzle,  made  both  ships 
quiver  and  recoil,  as  they  smashed  the  round  shot  through  and 
through  each  other. 

So  they  roared  and  flashed,  fast  clenched  to  each  other  in 
that  devil's  wedlock,  under  a  cloud  of  smoke  beneath  the 
cloudless  tropic  sky  ;  while  all  around,  the  dolphins  gambolled, 
and  the  flying-fish  shot  on  from  swell  to  swell,  and  the  rainbow- 
hued  jellies  opened  and  shut  their  cups  of  living  crystal  to  the 
sun,  as  merrily  as  if  man  had  never  fallen,  and  hell  had  never 
broken  loose  on  earth. 

So  it  raged  for  an  hour  or  more,  till  all  arms  were  weary, 
and  all  tongues  clove  to  the  mouth.  And  sick  men,  rottiii;>; 
with  scurvy,  scrambled  up  on  deck,  and  fought  with  the  strength 


,'WS  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [,  HAK  XT. 

of  madness  :  and  tiny  powder-boys,  handing  up  cartridges  from 
the  hold,  laughed  and  cheered  as  the  shots  ran  past  their  ears ; 
ami  "lil  Salvatinii  Yoo,  a  text  uj>on  hi*  lips,  and  a  fury  in  Ins 
hoart  as  of  Joshua  or  Klijah  in  old  time,  worked  on,  calm  and 
grim,  but  with  the  energy  of  a  boy  at  play.  And  now  and  then 
an  opening  in  the  smoke  showed  the  Spanish  captain,  in  his 
suit  of  black  steel  armour,  standing  cool  and  proud,  guiding  and 
pointing,  careless  of  the  iron  hail,  but  too  lofty  a  gentleman  to 
soil  his  glove  with  aught  but  a  knightly  sword-hilt :  while 
Aniyas  and  Will,  after  the  fashion  of  the  English  gentlemen, 
had  stripped  themselves  nearly  as  bare  as  their  own  sailors,  ami 
were  cheering,  thrusting,  hewing,  and  hauling,  here,  there,  and 
everywhere,  like  any  common  mariner,  and  filling  them  with  a 
spirit  of  self-respect,  fellow-feeling,  and  personal  daring,  which 
the  discipline  of  the  Spaniards,  more  perfect  mechanically,  but 
cold  and  tyrannous,  and  crushing  spiritually,  never  could  bestow. 
The  black-plumed  Seflor  was  obeyed  ;  but  the  golden-locked 
Amyas  was  followed ;  and  would  have  been  followed  through 
the  jaws  of  hell. 

The  Spaniards,  ere  five  minutes  had  passed,  poured  en  masse 
into  the  Rose's  waist :  but  only  to  their  destruction.  Between 
the  poop  and  forecastle  (as  was  then  the  fashion)  the  upper- 
deck  beams  were  left  open  and  unplanked,  with  the  exception 
of  a  narrow  gangway  on  either  side ;  and  off  that  fatal  ledge 
the  boarders,  thrust  on  by  those  behind,  fell  headlong  between 
the  beams  to  the  main-deck  below,  to  be  slaughtered  helpless  in 
that  pit  of  destruction,  by  the  double  fire  from  the  bulkheads 
fore  and  aft;  while  the  few  who  kept  their  footing  on  the 
gangway,  after  vain  attempts  to  force  the  stockades  on  poop  and 
forecastle,  leaped  overboard  again  amid  a  shower  of  shot  and 
arrows.  The  fire  of  the  English  was  as  steady  as  it  was  quick  ; 
and  though  three-fourths  of  the  crew  had  never  smelt  powder 
before,  they  proved  well  the  truth  of  the  old  chronicler's  say- 
ing (since  proved  again  more  gloriously  than  ever,  at  Alma, 
Balaklava,  and  Inkermann),  that  "the  English  never  fight 
better  than  in  their  first  battle" 

Thrice  the  Spaniards  clambered  on  board ;  and  thrice 
surged  back  before  that  deadly  hail  The  decks  on  both  sides 
were  very  shambles  ;  and  Jack  Brimblecombe,  who  had  fought 
as  long  as  his  conscience  would  allow  him,  found,  when  he 
turned  to  a  more  clerical  occupation,  enough  to  do  in  carrying 
poor  wretches  to  the  surgeon,  without  giving  that  spiritual 
consolation  which  he  longed  to  give,  and  they  to  receive.  At 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  369 

last  there  was  a  lull  in  that  wild  storm.  No  shot  was  heard 
from  the  Spaniard's  upper-deck. 

Amyas  leaped  into  the  mizzen  rigging,  and  looked  through 
the  smoke.  Dead  men  he  could  descry  through  the  blinding 
veil,  rolled  in  heaps,  laid  flat ;  dead  men  and  dying :  but  no 
man  upon  his  feet.  The  last  volley  had  swept  the  deck  clear ; 
one  by  one  had  dropped  below  to  escape  that  fiery  shower  :  and 
alone  at  the  helm,  grinding  his  teeth  with  rage,  his  mustachios 
curling  up  to  his  very  eyes,  stood  the  Spanish  captain. 

Now  was  the  moment  for  a  counter-stroke.  Amyas  shouted 
for  the  boarders,  and  in  two  minutes  more  he  was  over  the  side, 
and  clutching  at  the  Spaniard's  mizzen  rigging. 

What  was  this  1  The  distance  between  him  and  the  enemy's 
side  was  widening.  Was  she  sheering  off?  Yes — and  rising 
too,  growing  bodily  higher  every  moment,  as  if  by  magic. 
Amyas  looked  up  in  astonishment  and  saw  what  it  was.  The 
Spaniard  was  heeling  fast  over  to  leeward  away  from  him. 
Her  masts  were  all  sloping  forward,  swifter  and  swifter — the 
end  was  come,  then  ! 

"  Back  !  in  God's  name  back,  men  !  She  is  sinking  by  the 
head ! "  And  with  much  ado  some  were  dragged  back,  some 
leaped  back — all  but  old  Michael  Heard. 

With  hair  and  beard  floating  in  the  wind,  the  bronzed  naked 
figure,  like  some  weird  old  Indian  fakir,  still  climbed  on  stead- 
fastly up  the  mizzen-chains  of  the  Spaniard,  hatchet  in  hand. 

"  Come  back,  Michael !  Leap  while  you  may !"  shouted  a 
dozen  voices.  Michael  turned — 

"  And  what  should  I  come  back  for,  then,  to  go  home  where 
no  one  knoweth  me  ?  I'll  die  like  an  Englishman  this  day,  or 
I'll  know  the  rason  why  !"  and  turning,  he  sprang  in  over  the 
bulwarks,  as  the  huge  ship  rolled  up  more  and  more,  like  a 
dying  whale,  exposing  all  her  long  black  bulk  almost  down  to 
the  keel,  and  one  of  her  lower-deck  guns,  as  if  in  defiance, 
exploded  upright  into  the  air,  hurling  the  ball  to  the  very 
heavens. 

In  an  instant  it  was  answered  from  the  Eose  by  a  column 
of  smoke,  and  the  eighteen-pound  ball  crashed  through  the 
bottom  of  the  defenceless  Spaniard. 

"  Who  fired  ?     Shame  to  fire  on  a  sinking  ship  !" 

"  Gunner  Yeo,  sir,"  shouted  a  voice  up  from  the  main-deck. 
"  He's  like  a  madman  down  here." 

"  Tell  him  if  he  fires  again,  I'll  put  him  in  irons,  if  he  were 
my  own  brother.  Cut  away  the  grapples  aloft,  men.  Don't 

2  B 


370  SPANISH  BLOODHOUN I >s  [.  ii.vr.  xx. 

VMM  BOO  how  she  drags  us  over?  Cut  away,  or  wo  shall  sink 
with  IIIT." 

They  cut  away,  and  the  Rose,  released  from  the  strain, 
shook  her  feathers  on  the  wave-crest  like  a  freed  sea-gull,  while 
nil  men  held  their  breaths. 

SMI  Mi -iily  the  glorious  creature  righted  herself,  and  rose 
again,  as  if  in  noble  shame,  for  one  last  struggle  with  her  doom. 
Her  bows  were  deep  in  the  water,  but  her  after-deck  still  dry. 
Righted  :  but  only  for  a  moment,  long  enough  to  let  her  crew 
come  pouring  wildly  up  on  deck,  with  cries  and  prayers,  and 
rush  aft  to  the  poop,  where,  under  the  flag  of  Spain,  stood  the 
tall  captain,  his  left  hand  on  the  standard -staff,  his  sword 
pointed  in  his  right. 

"Back,  men!"  they  heard  him  cry,  "and  die  like  valiant 
mariners." 

Some  of  them  ran  to  the  bulwarks,  and  shouted  "  Mercy ! 
We  surrender !"  and  the  English  broke  into  a  cheer  and  called 
to  them  to  run  her  alongside. 

"Silence!"  shouted  Amyas.  "I  take  no  surrender  from 
mutineers.  Sefior,"  cried  he  to  the  captain,  springing  into  the 
rigging  and  taking  off  his  hat,  "  for  the  love  of  God  and  these 
men,  strike  !  and  surrender  a  buena  querra." 

The  Spaniard  lifted  his  hat  and  bowed  courteously,  and 
answered,  "  Impossible,  Sefior.  No  querra  is  good  which  stains 
my  honour." 

"  God  have  mercy  on  you,  then  ! " 

"Amen  !"  said  the  Spaniard,  crossing  himself. 

She  gave  one  awful  lounge  forward,  and  dived  under  the 
coming  swell,  hurling  her  crew  into  the  eddies.  Nothing  but 
the  point  of  her  poop  remained,  and  there  stood  the  stern  and 
steadfast  Don,  cap-a-pid  in  his  glistening  black  armour,  immov- 
able as  a  man  of  iron,  while  over  him  the  flag,  which  claimed 
the  empire  of  both  worlds,  flaunted  its  gold  aloft  and  upwards 
in  the  glare  of  the  tropic  noon. 

"  He  shall  not  carry  that  flag  to  the  devil  with  him ;  I  will 
have  it  yet,  if  I  die  for  it ! "  said  Will  Gary,  and  rushed  to  the 
Ride  to  leap  overboard,  but  Amyas  stopped  him. 

"  Let  him  die  as  he  has  lived,  with  honour." 

A  wild  figure  sprang  out  of  the  mass  of  sailors  who  struggled 
and  shrieked  amid  the  foam,  and  rushed  upward  at  the  Spaniard. 
It  was  Michael  Heard.  The  Don,  who  stood  above  him,  plunged 
his  sword  into  the  old  man's  body :  but  the  hatchet  gleamed, 
nevertheless :  down  went  the  blade  through  headpiece  and 


C1IAF.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  371 

through  head;  and  as  Heard  sprang  onward,  bleeding,  but 
alive,  the  steel-clad  corpse  rattled  down  the  deck  into  the 
surge.  Two  more  strokes,  struck  with  the  fury  of  a  dying  man, 
and  the  standard-staff  was  hewn  through.  Old  Michael  col- 
lected all  his  strength,  hurled  the  flag  far  from  the  sinking  ship, 
and  then  stood  erect  one  moment  and  shouted,  "  God  save 
Queen  Bess!"  and  the  English  answered  with  a  "Hurrah!" 
which  rent  the  welkin. 

Another  moment  and  the  gulf  had  swallowed  his  victim, 
and  the  poop,  and  him ;  and  nothing  remained  of  the  Madre 
Dolorosa  but  a  few  floating  spars  and  struggling  wretches,  while 
a  great  awe  fell  upon  all  men,  and  a  solemn  silence,  broken  only 

by  the  cry 

"  Of  some  strong  swimmer  in  his  agony." 

And  then,  suddenly  collecting  themselves,  as  men  awakened 
from  a  dream,  half-a-dozen  desperate  gallants,  reckless  of  sharks 
and  eddies,  leaped  overboard,  swam  towards  the  flag,  and  towed 
it  alongside  in  triumph. 

"Ah!"  said  Salvation  Yeo,  as  he  helped  the  trophy  up 
over  the  side ;  "  ah  !  it  was  not  for  nothing  that  we  found  poor 
Michael !  He  was  always  a  good  comrade — nigh  as  good  a 
one  as  William  Penberthy  of  Marazion,  whom  the  Lord  grant  I 
meet  in  bliss !  And  now,  then,  my  masters,  shall  we  inshore 
again  and  burn  La  Guayra  1" 

"Art  thou  never  glutted  with  Spanish  blood,  thou  old 
wolf?"  asked  Will  Gary. 

"  Never,  sir,"  answered  Yeo. 

"To  St.  Jago  be  it,"  said  Amyas,  "if  we  can  get  there: 
but— God  help  us  !" 

And  he  looked  round  sadly  enough ;  while  no  one  needed 
that  he  should  finish  his  sentence,  or  explain  his  "but." 

The  foremast  was  gone,  the  main-yard  sprung,  the  rigging 
hanging  in  elf-locks,  the  hull  shot  through  and  through  in 
twenty  places,  the  deck  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  nine  good 
men,  beside  sixteen  wounded  down  below;  while  the  pitiless 
sun,  right  above  their  heads,  poured  down  a  flood  of  fire  upon  a 
sea  of  glass. 

And  it  would  have  been  well  if  faintness  and  weariness  had 
been  all  that  was  the  matter;  but  now  that  the  excitement 
was  over,  the  collapse  came ;  and  the  men  sat  down  listlessly 
and  sulkily  by  twos  and  threes  upon  the  deck,  starting  and 
wincing  when  they  heard  some  poor  fellow  below  cry  out  under 
the  surgeon's  knife ;  or  murmuring  to  each  other  that  all  was 


372  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS  [CHAI>.  xx. 

lost.  Drew  tried  in  vain  to  rouse  them,  telling  them  that  all 
depended  on  rigging  a  jury-mast  forward  as  soon  as  possible. 
They  answered  only  by  growls ;  and  at  last  broke  into  open 
reproaches.  Even  Will  Cary's  volatile  nature,  which  had  kcj>t 
him  H|>  during  the  fight,  gave  way,  when  Yeo  and  the  car]x'iit«T 
rame  a  ft,  and  told  Amyas  in  a  low  voice — 

"  We  are  hit  somewhere  forward,  below  the  water-line,  sir. 
She  leaks  a  terrible  deal,  and  the  Lord  will  in  it  vinn-hsafe  to  us 
to  lay  our  hands  on  the  place,  for  all  our  searching." 

"What  are  we  to  do  now,  Amyas,  in  the  devil's  name?" 
asked  Gary,  peevishly. 

"What  are  we  to  do,  in  God's  name,  rather,"  answered 
Amyas  in  a  low  voice.  "  Will,  Will,  what  did  God  make  you 
a  gentleman  for,  but  to  know  better  than  those  poor  fickle 
fellows  forward,  who  blow  hot  and  cold  at  every  change  of 
weather  !" 

"  I  wish  you'd  come  forward  and  speak  to  them,  sir,"  said 
Yeo,  who  had  overheard  the  last  words,  "  or  we  shall  get  nought 
done." 

Amyas  went  forward  instantly. 

"Now  then,  my  brave  lads,  what's  the  matter  here,  that 
you  are  all  sitting  on  your  tails  like  monkeys  1" 

"  Ugh  ! "  grunts  one.  "  Don't  you  think  our  day's  work 
has  been  long  enough  yet,  captain?" 

"  You  don't  want  us  to  go  in  to  La  Guayra  again,  sir  ? 
There  are  enough  of  us  thrown  away  already,  I  reckon,  about 
that  wench  there." 

"  Best  sit  here,  and  sink  quietly.  There's  no  getting  home 
again,  that's  plain." 

"  Why  were  we  brought  out  here  to  be  killed  ?" 

"  For  shame,  men  ! "  cries  Yeo ;  "  you're  no  better  than  a  set 
of  stiffhecked  Hebrew  Jews,  murmuring  against  Moses  the  very 
minute  after  the  Lord  has  delivered  you  from  the  Egyptians." 

Now  I  do  not  wish  to  set  Amyas  up  as  a  perfect  man ;  for 
he  had  his  faults,  like  every  one  else ;  nor  as  better,  thank  God, 
than  many  and  many  a  brave  and  virtuous  captain  in  her 
Majesty's  service  at  this  very  day :  but  certainly  he  behaved 
admirably  under  that  trial.  Drake  had  trained  him,  as  he 
trained  many  another  excellent  officer,  to  be  as  stout  in  discipline, 
and  as  dogged  of  purpose,  as  he  himself  was  :  but  he  had  trained 
him  also  to  feel  with  and  for  his  men,  to  make  allowances  for 
them,  and  to  keep  Ids  teinjHT  \\ith  them,  as  he  did  this  day. 
True,  he  had  seen  Drake  in  a  rage ;  he  had  seen  him  hang  one 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  373 

man  for  a  mutiny  (and  that  man  his  dearest  friend),  and  threaten 
to  hang  thirty  more ;  but  Amyas  remembered  well  that  that 
explosion  took  place  when  having,  as  Drake  said  publicly  him- 
self, "  taken  in  hand  that  I  know  not  in  the  world  how  to  go 
through  with ;  it  passeth  my  capacity ;  it  hath  even  bereaved 
me  of  my  wits  to  think  of  it,"  .  .  .  and  having  "now  set 
together  by  the  ears  three  mighty  princes,  her  Majesty  and  the 
kings  of  Spain  and  Portugal,"  he  found  his  whole  voyage  ready 
to  come  to  nought,  "by  mutinies  and  discords,  controversy 
between  the  sailors  and  gentlemen,  and  stomaching  between 
the  gentlemen  and  sailors."  "  But,  my  masters "  (quoth  the 
self-trained  hero,  and  Amyas  never  forgot  his  words),  "  I  must 
have  it  left ;  for  I  must  have  the  gentlemen  to  haul  and  draw 
with  the  mariner,  and  the  mariner  with  the  gentlemen.  I  would 
like  to  know  him  that  would  refuse  to  set  his  hand  to  a  rope  !" 

And  now  Amyas's  conscience  smote  him  (and  his  simple  and 
pious  soul  took  the  loss  of  his  brother  as  God's  verdict  on  his 
conduct),  because  he  had  set  his  own  private  affection,  even  his 
own  private  revenge,  before  the  safety  of  his  ship's  company, 
and  the  good  of  his  country. 

"Ah,"  said  he  to  himself,  as  he  listened  to  his  men's 
reproaches,  "if  I  had  been  thinking,  like  a  loyal  soldier,  of 
serving  my  queen,  and  crippling  the  Spaniard,  I  should  have 
taken  that  great  bark  three  days  ago,  and  in  it  the  very  man  I 
sought!" 

So  "choking  down  his  old  man,"  as  Yeo  used  to  say,  he 
made  answer  cheerfully — 

"  Pooh  !  pooh  !  brave  lads  !  For  shame,  for  shame  !  You 
were  lions  half-an-hour  ago ;  you  are  not  surely  turned  sheep 
already !  Why,  but  yesterday  evening  you  were  grumbling 
because  I  would  not  run  in  and  fight  those  three  ships  under 
the  batteries  of  La  Guayra,  and  now  you  think  it  too  much  to 
have  fought  them  fairly  out  at  sea  ?  What  has  happened  but 
the  chances  of  war,  which  might  have  happened  anywhere? 
Nothing  venture,  nothing  win ;  and  nobody  goes  birdnesting 
without  a  fall  at  times.  If  any  one  wants  to  be  safe  in  this 
life,  he'd  best  stay  at  home  and  keep  his  bed ;  though  even 
there,  who  knows  but  the  roof  might  fall  through  on  him  1" 

"Ah,  it's  all  very  well  for  you,  captain,"  said  some  grum- 
bling younker,  with  a  vague  notion  that  Amyas  must  be  better 
off  than  he,  because  he  was  a  gentleman.  Amyas's  blood  rose. 

"  Yes,  sirrah  !  it  is  very  well  for  me,  as  long  as  God  is  with 
me  :  but  He  is  with  every  man  in  this  ship,  I  would  have  you 


374  SPANISH  r.LOODHOUNDS  [CHAP.  xx. 

to  know,  aa  much  na  He  is  with  me.  Do  you  fancy  that  I 
have  nothing  to  lose )  I  who  have  adventured  in  this  voyage 
all  I  am  worth,  and  more ;  who,  if  I  fail,  must  return  to  beggary 
and  acorn  ?  And  if  I  have  ventured  rashly,  sinfully,  if  you  will, 
the  lives  of  any  of  you  in  my  own  private  quarrel,  am  I  not 
punished?  Have  I  not  lost V 

His  voice  trembled  and  stopped  there,  but  he  recovered 
himself  in  a  moment. 

"  Pish  !  I  can't  stand  here  chattering.  Carpenter !  an  axe ! 
and  help  me  to  cast  these  spars  loose.  Get  out  of  my  way, 
there !  lumbering  the  scuppers  up  like  so  many  moulting  fowls ! 
Here,  all  old  friends,  lend  a  hand !  Pelican's  men,  stand  by 
your  captain  !  Did  we  sail  round  the  world  for  nothing  1" 

This  last  appeal  struck  home,  and  up  leaped  half-a-dozen  of 
the  old  Pelicans,  and  set  to  work  at  his  side  manfully  to  rig  the 
jury-mast. 

"  Come  along !"  cried  Gary  to  the  malcontents ;  "  we're  raw 
longshore  fellows,  but  we  won't  be  outdone  by  any  old  sea-dog 
of  them  all."  And  setting  to  work  himself,  he  was  soon  fol- 
lowed by  one  and  another,  till  order  and  work  went  on  well 
enough. 

"  And  where  are  we  going,  when  the  mast's  up  V  shouted 
some  saucy  hand  from  behind. 

"  Where  you  daren't  follow  us  alone  by  yourself,  so  you  had 
better  keep  us  company,"  replied  Yeo. 

"I'll  tell  you  where  we  are  going,  lads,"  said  Amyas,  rising 
from  his  work.  "  Like  it  or  leave  it  as  you  will,  I  have  no 
secrets  from  my  crew.  We  are  going  inshore  there  to  find  a 
harbour,  and  careen  the  ship." 

There  was  a  start  and  a  murmur. 

"  Inshore  1     Into  the  Spaniards'  mouths  ?" 

"All  in  the  Inquisition  in  a  week's  time." 

"  Better  stay  here,  and  be  drowned." 

"You're  right  in  that  last,"  shouts  Gary.  "That's  the 
right  death  for  blind  puppies.  Look  you !  I  don't  know  in  the 
least  where  we  are,  and  I  hardly  know  stem  from  stern  aboard 
ship ;  and  the  captain  may  be  right  or  wrong — that's  nothing 
to  me ;  but  this  I  know,  that  I  am  a  soldier,  and  will  obey 
orders ;  and  where  he  goes,  I  go ;  and  whosoever  hinders  me 
must  walk  up  my  sword  to  do  it" 

Amyas  pressed  Gary's  hand,  and  then — 

"  And  here's  my  broadside  next,  men.  I'll  go  nowhere,  and 
do  nothing  without  the  advice  of  Salvation  Yeo  and  Robert 


CHAP.  XX.]  AND  ENGLISH  MASTIFFS.  375 

Drew;  and  if  any  man  in  the  ship  knows  better  than  these 
two,  let  him  up,  and  we'll  give  him  a  hearing.  Eh,  Pelicans  1" 

There  was  a  grunt  of  approbation  from  the  Pelicans ;  and 
Amyas  returned  to  the  charge. 

"  We  have  five  shot  between  wind  and  water,  and  one 
somewhere  below.  Can  we  face  a  gale  of  wind  in  that  state,  or 
can  we  not  ?" 

Silence. 

"  Can  we  get  home  with  a  leak  in  our  bottom  ?" 

Silence. 

"  Then  what  can  we  do  but  run  inshore,  and  take  our 
chance  ?  Speak  !  It's  a  coward's  trick  to  do  nothing  because 
what  we  must  do  is  not  pleasant.  Will  you  be  like  children, 
that  would  sooner  die  than  take  nasty  physic,  or  will  you 
noU" 

Silence  still. 

"  Come  along  now  !  Here's  the  wind  again  round  with  the 
sun,  and  up  to  the  north-west.  In  with  her  ! " 

Sulkily  enough,  but  unable  to  deny  the  necessity,  the  men 
set  to  work,  and  the  vessel's  head  was  put  toward  the  land ; 
but  when  she  began  to  slip  through  the  water,  the  leak  increased 
so  fast,  that  they  were  kept  hard  at  work  at  the  pumps  for  the 
rest  of  the  afternoon. 

The  current  had  by  this  time  brought  them  abreast  of  the 
bay  of  Higuerote ;  and,  luckily  for  them,  safe  out  of  the  short 
heavy  swell  which  it  causes  round  Cape  Codera.  Looking 
inland,  they  had  now  to  the  south-west  that  noble  headland, 
backed  by  the  Caracca  Mountains,  range  on  range,  up  to  the 
Silla  and  the  Neguater;  while,  right  ahead  of  them  to  the 
south,  the  shore  sank  suddenly  into  a  low  line  of  mangrove- 
wood,  backed  by  primaeval  forest.  As  they  ran  inward,  all  eyes 
were  strained  greedily  to  find  some  opening  in  the  mangrove 
belt :  but  none  was  to  be  seen  for  some  time.  The  lead  was 
kept  going ;  and  every  fresh  heave  announced  shallower  water. 

"  We  shall  have  very  shoal  work  off  those  mangroves,  Yeo," 
said  Amyas ;  "I  doubt  whether  we  shall  do  aught  now,  unless 
we  find  a  river's  mouth." 

"  If  the  Lord  thinks  a  river  good  for  us,  sir,  He'll  show  us 
one."  So  on  they  went,  keeping  a  south-east  course,  and  at 
last  an  opening  in  the  mangrove  belt  was  hailed  with  a  cheer 
from  the  older  hands,  though  the  majority  shrugged  their 
shoulders,  as  men  going  open-eyed  to  destruction. 

Off  the  mouth  they  sent  in  Drew  and  Gary  with  a  boat,  and 


376  SPANISH  BLOODHOUNDS,   ETC.  [CHAP.  XX. 

watclml  anxiously  for  an  hour.  The  boat  returned  with  a  good 
report  of  two  fathoms  of  water  over  the  bar,  impenetrable  forests 
fur  two  miles  up,  the  river  sixty  yards  broad,  and  no  sign  of 
man.  The  river's  banks  were  soft  and  sloping  mud,  fit  for 
careening. 

"Safe  quarters,  sir,"  said  Yeo  privately,  "as  far  as 
Spaniards  go.  I  hope  in  God  it  may  be  as  safe  from  calentures 
and  fevers." 

"  Beggars  must  not  be  choosers,"  said  Amyas.  So  in  they 
went. 

They  towed  the  ship  up  about  half-a-mile  to  a  point  where 
she  could  not  be  seen  from  the  seaward ;  and  there  moored  her 
to  the  mangrove-stems.  Amyas  ordered  a  boat  out,  and  went 
up  the  river  himself  to  reconnoitre.  He  rowed  some  three 
miles,  till  the  river  narrowed  suddenly,  and  was  all  but  covered 
in  by  the  interlacing  boughs  of  mighty  trees.  There  was  no 
sign  that  man  had  been  there  since  the  making  of  the  world. 

He  dropped  down  the  stream  again,  thoughtfully  and  sadly. 
How  many  years  ago  was  it  that  he  passed  this  river's  mouth  1 
Three  days.  And  yet  how  much  had  passed  in  them !  Don 
Guzman  found  and  lost — Rose  found  and  lost — a  great  victory 
gained,  and  yet  lost — perhaps  his  ship  lost — above  all,  his 
brother  lost. 

Lost !  0  God,  how  should  he  find  his  brother  ? 

Some  strange  bird  out  of  the  woods  made  mournful  answer 
— "Never,  never,  never!" 

How  should  he  face  his  mother  ? 

"  Never,  never,  never  ! "  wailed  the  bird  again ;  and  Amyas 
smiled  bitterly,  and  said  "  Never ! "  likewise. 

The  night  mist  began  to  steam  and  wreathe  upon  the  foul 
beer-coloured  stream.  The  loathy  floor  of  liquid  mud  lay  bare 
beneath  the  mangrove  forest.  Upon  the  endless  web  of  inter- 
arching  roots  great  purple  crabs  were  crawling  up  and  down. 
They  would  have  supped  with  pleasure  upon  Amyas's  corpse ; 
perhaps  they  might  sup  on  him  after  all ;  for  a  heavy  sickening 
graveyard  smell  made  his  heart  sink  within  him,  and  his 
stomach  heave;  and  his  weary  body,  and  more  weary  soul, 
gave  themselves  up  helplessly  to  the  depressing  influence  of 
that  doleful  place.  The  black  bank  of  dingy  leathern  leaves 
above  his  head,  the  endless  labyrinth  of  stems  and  withes  (for 
every  bough  had  lowered  its  own  living  cord,  to  take  fresh  hold 
of  the  foul  soil  below) ;  the  web  of  roots,  which  stretched  away 
inland  till  it  was  lost  in  the  shades  of  evening — all  seemed  one 


CHAP.  XXI.]         HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  COMMUNION.  377 

horrid  complicated  trap  for  him  and  his ;  and  even  where,  here 
and  there,  he  passed  the  mouth  of  a  lagoon,  there  was  no  open- 
ing, no  relief — nothing  but  the  dark  ring  of  mangroves,  and  here 
and  there  an  isolated  group  of  large  and  small,  parents  and 
children,  breeding  and  spreading,  as  if  in  hideous  haste  to  choke 
out  air  and  sky.  Wailing  sadly,  sad-coloured  mangrove-hens 
ran  off  across  the  mud  into  the  dreary  dark.  The  hoarse  night- 
raven,  hid  among  the  roots,  startled  the  voyagers  with  a  sudden 
shout,  and  then  all  was  again  silent  as  a  grave.  The  loathly 
alligators,  lounging  in  the  slime,  lifted  their  horny  eyelids  lazily, 
and  leered  upon  him  as  he  passed  with  stupid  savageness. 
Lines  of  tall  herons  stood  dimly  in  the  growing  gloom,  like  white 
fantastic  ghosts,  watching  the  passage  of  the  doomed  boat. 
All  was  foul,  sullen,  weird  as  witches'  dream.  If  Amyas  had 
seen  a  crew  of  skeletons  glide  down  the  stream  behind  him, 
with  Satan  standing  at  the  helm,  he  would  have  scarcely  been 
surprised.  What  fitter  craft  could  haunt  that  Stygian  flood  ? 

That  night  every  man  of  the  boat's  crew,  save  Amyas,  was 
down  with  raging  fever ;  before  ten  the  next  morning,  five  more 
men  were  taken,  and  others  sickening  fast. 


CHAPTEE   XXL 

HOW   THEY   TOOK    THE    COMMUNION   UNDER   THE    TREE   AT 
HIGUEROTE. 

"  Follow  thee  ?     Follow  thee  ?    Wha  wad  na  follow  thee  ? 
Lang  hast  thou  looed  and  trusted  us  fairly." 

AMYAS  would  have  certainly  taken  the  yellow  fever,  but  for  one 
reason,  which  he  himself  gave  to  Gary.  He  had  no  time  to  be 
sick  while  his  men  were  sick ;  a  valid  and  sufficient  reason  (as 
many  a  noble  soul  in  the  Crimea  has  known  too  well),  as  long 
as  the  excitement  of  work  is  present :  but  too  apt  to  fail  the 
hero,  and  to  let  him  sink  into  the  pit  which  he  has  so  often 
overleapt,  the  moment  that  his  work  is  done. 

He  called  a  council  of  war,  or  rather  a  sanitary  commission, 
the  next  morning ;  for  he  was  fairly  at  his  wits'  end.  The 
men  were  panic-stricken,  ready  to  mutiny :  Amyas  told  them 
that  he  could  not  see  any  possible  good  which  could  accrue  to 
them  by  killing  him,  or — (for  there  were  two  sides  to  every 
question) — being  killed  by  him ;  and  then  went  below  to  con- 
sult. The  doctor  talked  mere  science,  or  nonscience,  about 


37S  HOW  THEY  T<M.K  TIIK  COMMUNION          [,-ii.\i-.  XXI. 

humours,  complexions,  nn<l  :uiiin:il  spirits.  Jack  r,riml>]er,iml>«\ 
mere  pulpit,  alniiit  its  being  the  visitation  of  God.  Cary.  mere 
despair,  though  ho  jested  over  it  with  a  smile.  Yen,  mere 
fatalism,  though  he  quoted  Scripture  to  back  the  same.  Drew, 
the  master,  had  nothing  to  say.  His  "business  was  to  sail  the 
si  tip,  and  not  to  cure  calentures." 

Whereon  Amyas  clutched  his  locks,  according  to  custom ; 
ami  at  last  broke  forth — 

"  Doctor !  a  fig  for  your  humours  and  complexions !  Can 
you  cure  a  man's  humours,  or  change  his  complexion  1  Can  an 
Ethiopian  change  his  skin,  or  a  leopard  his  spots  1  Don't  shove 
off  your  ignorance  on  God,  sir.  I  ask  you  what's  the  reason  of 
this  sickness,  and  you  don't  know.  Jack  Brimblecombe,  don't 
talk  to  me  about  God's  visitation ;  this  looks  much  more  like 
the  devil's  visitation,  to  my  mind.  We  are  doing  God's  work, 
Sir  John,  and  He  is  not  likely  to  hinder  us.  So  down  with  the 
devil,  say  I.  Gary,  laughing  killed  the  cat,  but  it  won't  cure 
a  Christian.  Yeo,  when  an  angel  tells  me  that  it's  God's  will 
that  we  should  all  die  like  dogs  in  a  ditch,  I'll  call  this  God's 
will ;  but  not  before.  Drew,  you  say  your  business  is  to  sail 
the  ship ;  then  sail  her  out  of  this  infernal  poison-trap  this  very 
morning,  if  you  can,  which  you  can't.  The  mischief's  in  the 
air,  and  nowhere  else.  I  felt  it  run  through  me  coming  down 
last  night,  and  smelt  it  like  any  sewer :  and  if  it  was  not  in  the 
air,  why  was  my  boat's  crew  taken  first,  tell  me  that  ? " 

There  was  no  answer. 

"  Then  I'll  tell  you  why  they  were  taken  first :  because  the 
mist,  when  we  came  through  it,  only  rose  five  or  six  feet  above 
the  stream,  and  we  were  in  it,  while  you  on  board  were  above 
it.  And  those  that  were  taken  on  board  this  morning,  every 
one  of  them,  slept  on  the  main-deck,  and  every  one  of  them,  too, 
was  in  fear  of  the  fever,  whereby  I  judge  two  things, — Keep  as 
high  as  you  can,  and  fear  nothing  but  God,  and  we're  all  safe 
yet." 

"But  the  fog  was  up  to  our  round-tops  at  sunrise  this 
morning,"  said  Gary. 

"  I  know  it :  but  we  who  were  on  the  half-deck  were  not 
in  it  so  long  as  those  below,  and  that  may  have  made  the 
difference,  let  alone  our  having  free  air.  Beside,  I  suspect  the 
heat  in  the  evening  draws  the  poison  out  more,  and  that  when 
it  gets  cold  toward  morning,  the  venom  of  it  goes  off  somehow." 

How  it  went  off  Amyas  could  not  tell  (right  in  his  facts  as 
he  was),  for  nobody  on  earth  knew,  I  suppose,  at  that  day ; 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  379 

and  it  was  not  till  nearly  two  centuries  of  fatal  experience  that 
the  settlers  in  America  discovered  the  simple  laws  of  these 
epidemics  which  now  every  child  knows,  or  ought  to  know. 
But  common  sense  was  on  his  side ;  and  Yeo  rose  and  spoke — 

"  As  I  have  said  before,  many  a  time,  the  Lord  has  sent 
us  a  very  young  Daniel  for  judge.  I  remember  now  to  have 
heard  the  Spaniards  say,  how  these  calentures  lay  always  in  the 
low  ground,  and  never  came  more  than  a  few  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea." 

"  Let  us  go  up  those  few  hundred  feet,  then." 

Every  man  looked  at  Amyas,  and  then  at  his  neighbour. 

"  Gentlemen,  '  Look  the  devil  straight  in  the  face,  if  you 
would  hit  him  in  the  right  place.'  We  cannot  get  the  ship  to  sea 
as  she  is ;  and  if  we  could,  we  cannot  go  home  empty-handed ; 
and  we  surely  cannot  stay  here  to  die  of  fever. — We  must 
leave  the  ship  and  go  inland." 

"  Inland  ?"  answered  every  voice  but  Yeo's. 

"  Up  those  hundred  feet  which  Yeo  talks  of.  Up  to  the 
mountains ;  stockade  a  camp,  and  get  our  sick  and  provisions 
thither."— 

"  And  what  next  1" 

"And  when  we  are  recruited,  march  over  the  mountains, 
and  surprise  St.  Yago  de  Leon." 

Gary  swore  a  great  oath.    "Amyas !  you  are  a  daring  fellow  !" 

"  Not  a  bit.     It's  the  plain  path  of  prudence." 

"So  it  is,  sir,"  said  old  Yeo,  "and  I  follow  you  in  it." 

"And  so  do  I,"  squeaked  Jack  Brimblecombe. 

"  Nay,  then,  Jack,  thou  shalt  not  outrun  me.  So  I  say 
yes  too,"  quoth  Gary. 

"  Mr.  Drew  V 

"  At  your  service,  sir,  to  live  or  die.  I  know  nought  about 
stockading ;  but  Sir  Francis  would  have  given  the  same  counsel, 
I  verily  believe,  if  he  had  been  in  your  place." 

"  Then  tell  the  men  that  we  start  in  an  hour's  time.  Win 
over  the  Pelicans,  Yeo  and  Drew ;  and  the  rest  must  follow, 
like  sheep  aver  a  hedge." 

The  Pelicans,  and  the  liberated  galley-slaves,  joined  the 
project  at  once  :  but  the  rest  gave  Amyas  a  stormy  hour.  The 
great  question  was,  where  were  the  hills  1  In  that  dense  man- 
grove thicket  they  could  not  see  fifty  yards  before  them. 

"  The  hills  are  not  three  miles  to  the  south-west  of  you  at 
this  moment,"  said  Amyas.  "  I  marked  every  shoulder  of  them 
as  we  ran  in." 


380  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  COMMUNION          [CHAP.  Til. 

"  I  suppose  you  meant  to  take  us  there  1" 

The  question  set  a  light  to  a  train — and  angry  suspicions 
were  blazing  up  one  after  another,  but  Amyas  silenced  them 
with  a  countermine. 

"  Fools !  if  I  had  not  wit  enow  to  look  ahead  a  little 
farther  than  you  do,  where  would  you  be  1  Are  you  mad  as 
well  as  reckless,  to  rise  against  your  own  captain  because  he 
has  two  strings  to  his  bow  ?  Go  my  way,  I  say,  or,  as  I  live, 
I'll  blow  up  the  ship  and  every  soul  on  board,  and  save  you  the 
pain  of  rotting  here  by  inches." 

The  men  knew  that  Amyas  never  said  what  he  did  not 
intend  to  do ;  not  that  Amyas  intended  to  do  this,  because  he 
knew  that  the  threat  would  be  enough.  So  they  agreed  to  go; 
and  were  reassured  by  seeing  that  the  old  Pelican's  men  turned 
to  the  work  heartily  and  cheerfully. 

There  is  no  use  keeping  the  reader  for  five  or  six  weary 
hours,  under  a  broiling  (or  rather  stewing)  sun,  stumbling  over 
mangrove  roots,  hewing  his  way  through  thorny  thickets, 
dragging  sick  men  and  provisions  up  mountain  steeps,  amid 
disappointment,  fatigue,  murmurs,  curses,  snakes,  mosquitoes, 
false  alarms  of  Spaniards,  and  every  misery,  save  cold,  which 
flesh  is  heir  to.  Suffice  it  that  by  sunset  that  evening 
they  had  gained  a  level  spot,  a  full  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea,  backed  by  an  inaccessible  cliff  which  formed  the  upper 
shoulder  of  a  mighty  mountain,  defended  below  by  steep  wooded 
slopes,  and  needing  but  the  felling  of  a  few  trees  to  make  it 
impregnable. 

Amyas  settled  the  sick  under  the  arched  roots  of  an  enor- 
mous cottonwood  tree,  and  made  a  second  journey  to  the  ship, 
to  bring  up  hammocks  and  blankets  for  them;  while  Yeo's 
wisdom  and  courage  were  of  inestimable  value.  He,  as  pioneer, 
had  found  the  little  brook  up  which  they  forced  their  way ;  he 
had  encouraged  them  to  climb  the  cliffs  over  which  it  fell,  argu- 
ing rightly  that  on  its  course  they  were  sure  to  find  some 
ground  fit  for  encampment  within  the  reach  of  water ;  he  had 
supported  Amyas,  when  again  and  again  the  weary  crew 
entreated  to  be  dragged  no  farther,  and  had  gone  back  again  a 
dozen  times  to  cheer  them  upward ;  while  Gary,  who  brought 
up  the  rear,  bullied  and  cheered  on  the  stragglers  who  sat  down 
and  refused  to  move,  drove  back  at  the  sword's  point  more  than 
one  who  was  beating  a  retreat,  carried  their  burdens  for  them, 
sang  them  songs  on  the  halt ;  in  all  things  approving  himself 
the  gallant  and  hopeful  soul  which  he  had  always  been  :  till 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  381 

Amyas,  beside  himself  with  joy  at  finding  that  the  two  men  on 
whom  he  had  counted  most  were  utterly  worthy  of  his  trust, 
went  so  far  as  to  whisper  to  them  both,  in  confidence,  that  very 
night — 

"  Cortes  burnt  his  ships  when  he  landed.  Why  should  not 
we?" 

Yeo  leapt  upright;  and  then  sat  down  again,  and  whispered. 

"  Do  you  say  that,  captain  ?  'Tis  from  above,  then,  that's 
certain ;  for  it's  been  hanging  on  my  mind  too  all  day." 

"  There's  no  hurry,"  quoth  Amyas ;  "  we  must  clear  her  out 
first,  you  know,"  while  Gary  sat  silent  and  musing.  Amyas  had 
evidently  more  schemes  in  his  head  than  he  chose  to  tell. 

The  men  were  too  tired  that  evening  to  do  much  :  but  ere 
the  sun  rose  next  morning  Amyas  had  them  hard  at  work  forti- 
fying their  position.  It  was,  as  I  said,  strong  enough  by  nature ; 
for  though  it  was  commanded  by  high  cliffs  on  three  sides,  yet 
there  was  no  chance  of  an  enemy  coming  over  the  enormous 
mountain-range  behind  them,  and  still  less  chance  that,  if  he 
came,  he  would  discover  them  through  the  dense  mass  of  trees 
which  crowned  the  cliff,  and  clothed  the  hills  for  a  thousand  feet 
above.  The  attack,  if  it  took  place,  would  come  from  below ; 
and  against  that  Amyas  guarded  by  felling  the  smaller  trees, 
and  laying  them  with  their  boughs  outward  over  the  crest  of  the 
slope,  thus  forming  an  abatis  (as  every  one  who  has  shot  in 
thick  cover  knows  to  his  cost)  warranted  to  bring  up  in  two 
steps,  horse,  dog,  or  man.  The  trunks  were  sawn  into  logs, 
laid  lengthwise,  and  steadied  by  stakes  and  mould ;  and  three 
or  four  hours'  hard  work  finished  a  stockade  which  would  defy 
anything  but  artillery.  The  work  done,  Amyas  scrambled  up 
into  the  boughs  of  the  enormous  ceiba-tree,  and  there  sat  in- 
specting his  own  handiwork,  looking  out  far  and  wide  over  the 
forest-covered  plains  and  the  blue  sea  beyond,  and  thinking,  in 
his  simple  straightforward  way,  of  what  was  to  be  done  next. 

To  stay  there  long  was  impossible ;  to  avenge  himself  upon 
La  Guayra  was  impossible ;  to  go  until  he  had  found  out  whether 
Frank  was  alive  or  dead  seemed  at  first  equally  impossible.  But 
were  Brimblecombe,  Gary,  and  those  eighty  men  to  be  sacrificed 
a  second  time  to  his  private  interest  1  Amyas  wept  with  rage, 
and  then  wept  again  with  earnest,  honest  prayer,  before  he  could 
make  up  his  mind.  But  he  made  it  up.  There  were  a  hundred 
chances  to  one  that  Frank  was  dead  ;  and  if  not,  he  was  equally 
past  their  help ;  for  he  was — Amyas  knew  that  too  well — by 
this  time  in  the  hands  of  the  Inquisition.  Who  could  lift  him 


;5Si>  now  THEY  TOOK  THE  COMMUNION         [UIAI-.  xxi. 


that  jilt  ?  Not  Amyas,  at  least!  Ami  crying  aloud  in 
his  agony,  "God  help  him!  for  I  cannot!"  Amyas  made  u]> 
his  mind  to  move.  But  whither?  Many  an  hour  he  thought 
ami  thought  alone,  there  in  his  airy  nest;  and  at  last  he  went 
down,  calm  and  cheerful,  and  drew  Cary  and  Yeo  aside.  They 
could  not,  he  said,  refit  the  ship  without  dying  of  fever  during 
the  process  ;  an  assertion  which  neither  of  his  hearers  was  bold 
enough  to  deny.  Even  if  they  refitted  her,  they  would  be  pretty 
certain  to  have  to  fight  the  Spaniards  again  ;  for  it  was  impos- 
sible to  doubt  the  Indian's  story,  that  they  had  been  forewarned 
of  the  Rose's  coming,  or  to  doubt,  either,  that  Eustace  had  been 
the  traitor. 

"  Let  us  try  St  Yago,  then  ;  sack  it,  come  down  on  La 
Guavra  in  the  rear,  take  a  ship  there,  and  so  get  home." 

"  Nay,  Will.  If  they  have  strengthened  themselves  against 
us  at  La  Guayra,  where  they  had  little  to  lose,  surely  they  have 
done  so  at  St.  Yago,  where  they  have  much.  I  hear  the  town 
is  large,  though  new  ;  and  besides,  how  can  we  get  over  these 
mountains  without  a  guide  V 

"  Or  with  one  1"  said  Cary,  with  a  sigh,  looking  up  at  the 
vast  walls  of  wood  and  rock  which  rose  range  on  range  for 
miles.  "  But  it  is  strange  to  find  you,  at  least,  throwing  cold 
water  on  a  daring  plot." 

"What  if  I  had  a  still  more  daring  one?  Did  you  ever 
hear  of  the  golden  city  of  Manoa?" 

Yeo  laughed  a  grim  but  joyful  laugh.  "  I  have,  sir  ;  and 
so  have  the  old  hands  from  the  Pelican  and  the  Jesus  of  Lubec, 
I  doubt  not." 

"So  much  the  better;"  and  Amyas  began  to  tell  Cary  all 
which  he  had  learned  from  the  Spaniard,  while  Yeo  capped 
every  word  thereof  with  rumours  and  traditions  of  his  own 
gathering.  Cary  sat  half  aghast  as  the  huge  phantasmagoria 
unfolded  itself  before  his  dazzled  eyes  ;  and  at  last  — 

"  So  that  was  why  you  wanted  to  burn  the  ship  !  Well, 
after  all,  nobody  needs  me  at  home,  and  one  less  at  table  won't 
be  missed.  So  you  want  to  play  Cortes,  eh  1" 

"  We  shall  never  need  to  play  Cortes  (who  was  not  such  a 
bad  fellow  after  all,  Will),  because  we  shall  have  no  such  cannibal 
fiends'  tyranny  to  rid.  the  earth  of,  as  he  had.  And  I  trust  we 
shall  fear  God  enough  not  to  play  Pizarro." 

So  the  conversation  dropped  for  the  time,  but  none  of  thorn 
forgot  it 

In  that  mountain-nook  the  party  spent  some  ten  days  and 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  383 

more.  Several  of  the  sick  men  died,  some  from  the  fever  super- 
added  to  their  wounds ;  some,  probably,  from  having  been  bled 
by  the  surgeon;  the  others  mended  steadily,  by  the  help  of 
certain  herbs  which  Yeo  administered,  much  to  the  disgust  of 
the  doctor,  who,  of  course,  wanted  to  bleed  the  poor  fellows  all 
round,  and  was  all  but  mutinous  when  Amyas  stayed  his  hand. 
In  the  meanwhile,  by  dint  of  daily  trips  to  the  ship,  provisions 
were  plentiful  enough, — beside  the  racoons,  monkeys,  and  other 
small  animals,  which  Yeo  and  the  veterans  of  Hawkins's  crew 
knew  how  to  catch,  and  the  fruit  and  vegetables ;  above  all,  the 
delicious  mountain  cabbage  of  the  Areca  palm,  and  the  fresh 
milk  of  the  cow-tree,  which  they  brought  in  daily,  paying  well 
thereby  for  the  hospitality  they  received. 

All  day  long  a  careful  watch  was  kept  among  the  branches 
of  the  mighty  ceiba-tree.  And  what  a  tree  that  was !  The 
hugest  English  oak  would  have  seemed  a  stunted  bush  beside 
it.  Borne  up  on  roots,  or  rather  walls,  of  twisted  board,  some 
twelve  feet  high,  between  which  the  whole  crew,  their  ammuni- 
tions, and  provisions,  were  housed  roomily,  rose  the  enormous 
trunk  full  forty  feet  in  girth,  towering  like  some  tall  lighthouse, 
smooth  for  a  hundred  feet,  then  crowned  with  boughs,  each  of 
which  was  a  stately  tree,  whose  topmost  twigs  were  full  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  from  the  ground.  And  yet  it  was  easy 
for  the  sailors  to  ascend;  so  many  natural  ropes  had  kind 
Nature  lowered  for  their  use,  in  the  smooth  lianes  which  hung 
to  the  very  earth,  often  without  a  knot  or  leaf.  Once  in  the 
tree,  you  were  within  a  new  world,  suspended  between  heaven 
and  earth,  and  as  Gary  said,  no  wonder  if,  like  Jack  when  he 
climbed  the  magic  bean-stalk,  you  had  found  a  castle,  a  giant, 
and  a  few  acres  of  well-stocked  park,  packed  away  somewhere 
amid  that  labyrinth  of  timber.  Flower-gardens  at  least  were 
there  in  plenty;  for  every  limb  was  covered  with  pendent 
cactuses,  gorgeous  orchises,  and  wild  pines ;  and  while  one-half 
the  tree  was  clothed  in  rich  foliage,  the  other  half,  utterly  leaf- 
less, bore  on  every  twig  brilliant  yellow  flowers,  around  which 
humming-birds  whirred  all  day  long.  Parrots  peeped  in  and 
out  of  every  cranny,  while,  within  the  airy  woodland,  brilliant 
lizards  basked  like  living  gems  upon  the  bark,  gaudy  finches 
flitted  and  chirrupped,  butterflies  of  every  size  and  colour  hovered 
over  the  topmost  twigs,  innumerable  insects  hummed  from  morn 
till  eve ;  and  when  the  sun  went  down,  tree-toads  came  out  to 
snore  and  croak  till  dawn.  There  was  more  life  round  that  one 
tree  than  in  a  whole  square  mile  of  English  soil. 


384  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  COMMUNION          [CHAP.  XXI. 

And  Amyas,  as  he  lounged  among  the  branches,  felt  at 
moments  as  if  he  would  be  content  to  stay  there  for  ever,  and 
feed  his  eyes  and  ears  with  all  its  wonders — and  then  started 
sighing  from  his  dream,  as  he  recollected  that  a  few  days  must 
bring  the  foe  upon  them,  and  force  him  to  decide  upon  some 
scheme  at  which  the  bravest  heart  might  falter  without  shame. 
So  there  he  sat  (for  he  often  took  the  scout's  place  himself), 
looking  out  over  the  fantastic  tropic  forest  at  his  feet,  and  the 
flat  mangrove-swamps  below,  and  the  white  sheet  of  foam-flecked 
blue ;  and  yet  no  sail  appeared ;  and  the  men,  as  their  fear  of 
fever  subsided,  began  to  ask  when  they  would  go  down  and  refit 
the  ship,  and  Amyas  put  them  off  as  best  he  could,  till  one  noon 
he  saw  slipping  along  the  shore  from  the  westward,  a  large  ship 
under  easy  sail,  and  recognised  in  her,  or  thought  he  did  so,  the 
ship  which  they  had  passed  upon  their  way. 

If  it  was  she,  she  must  have  run  past  them  to  La  Guayra 
in  the  night,  and  have  now  returned,  perhaps,  to  search  for 
them  along  the  coast. 

She  crept  along  slowly.  He  was  in  hopes  that  she  might 
pass  the  river's  mouth :  but  no.  She  lay-to  close  to  the  shore ; 
and,  after  awhile,  Amyas  saw  two  boats  pull  in  from  her,  and 
vanish  behind  the  mangroves. 

Sliding  down  a  liane,  he  told  what  he  had  seen.  The  men, 
tired  of  inactivity,  received  the  news  with  a  shout  of  joy,  and 
set  to  work  to  make  all  ready  for  their  guests.  Four  brass 
swivels,  which  they  had  brought  up,  were  mounted,  fixed  in 
logs,  so  as  to  command  the  path ;  the  musketeers  and  archers 
clustered  round  them  with  their  tackle  ready,  and  half-a-dozen 
good  marksmen  volunteered  into  the  cotton -tree  with  their 
arquebuses,  as  a  post  whence  "  a  man  might  have  very  pretty 
shooting."  Prayers  followed  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  dinner 
as  a  matter  of  course  also ;  but  two  weary  hours  passed  before 
there  was  any  sign  of  the  Spaniards. 

Presently  a  wreath  of  white  smoke  curled  up  from  the 
swamp,  and  then  the  report  of  a  caliver.  Then,  amid  the 
growls  of  the  English,  the  Spanish  flag  ran  up  above  the  trees, 
and  floated — horrible  to  behold — at  the  mast-head  of  the  Rose. 
They  were  signalling  the  ship  for  more  hands ;  and,  in  effect,  a 
third  boat  soon  pushed  off  and  vanished  into  the  forest. 

Another  hour,  during  which  the  men  had  thoroughly  lost 
their  temper,  but  not  their  hearts,  by  waiting;  and  talked  so 
loud,  and  strode  up  and  down  so  wildly,  that  Amyas  had  to 
warn  them  that  there  was  no  need  to  betray  themselves ;  that 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  385 

the  Spaniards  might  not  find  them  after  all ;  that  they  might 
pass  the  stockade  close  without  seeing  it ;  that,  unless  they  hit 
off  the  track  at  once,  they  would  probably  return  to  their  ship 
for  the  present ;  and  exacted  a  promise  from  them  that  they 
would  be  perfectly  silent  till  he  gave  the  word  to  fire. 

Which  wise  commands  had  scarcely  passed  his  lips,  when, 
in  the  path  below,  glanced  the  headpiece  of  a  Spanish  soldier, 
and  then  another  and  another. 

"  Fools  !"  whispered  Amyas  to  Gary ;  "  they  are  coming  up 
in  single  file,  rushing  on  their  own  death.  Lie  close,  men  ! " 

The  path  was  so  narrow  that  two  could  seldom  come  up 
abreast,  and  so  steep  that  the  enemy  had  much  ado  to  struggle 
and  stumble  upwards.  The  men  seemed  half  unwilling  to  pro- 
ceed, and  hung  back  more  than  once  ;  but  Amyas  could  hear  an 
authoritative  voice  behind,  and  presently  there  emerged  to  the 
front,  sword  in  hand,  a  figure  at  which  Amyas  and  Gary  both 
started. 

"  Is  it  he  ?" 

"  Surely  I  know  those  legs  among  a  thousand,  though  they 
are  in  armour." 

"It  is  my  turn  for  him,  now,  Gary,  remember !  Silence, 
silence,  men ! " 

The  Spaniards  seemed  to  feel  that  they  were  leading  a  for- 
lorn hope.  Don  Guzman  (for  there  was  little  doubt  that  it  was 
he)  had  much  ado  to  get  them  on  at  all. 

"  The  fellows  have  heard  how  gently  we  handled  the  Guayra 
squadron,"  whispers  Gary,  "  and  have  no  wish  to  become  fellow- 
martyrs  with  the  captain  of  the  Madre  Dolorosa." 

At  last  the  Spaniards  get  up  the  steep  slope  to  within  forty 
yards  of  the  stockade,  and  pause,  suspecting  a  trap,  and  puzzled 
by  the  complete  silence.  Amyas  leaps  on  the  top  of  it,  a  white 
flag  in  his  hand ;  but  his  heart  beats  so  fiercely  at  the  sight  of 
that  hated  figure,  that  he  can  hardly  get  out  the  words — 

"Don  Guzman,  the  quarrel  is  between  you  and  me,  not 
between  your  men  and  mine.  I  would  have  sent  in  a  challenge 
to  you  at  La  Guayra,  but  you  were  away ;  I  challenge  you  now 
to  single  combat." 

"  Lutheran  dog,  I  have  a  halter  for  you,  but  no  sword  !  As 
you  served  us  at  Smerwick,  we  will  serve  you  now.  Pirate  and 
ravisher;  you  and  yours  shall  share  Oxenham's  fate,  as  you 
have  copied  his  crimes,  and  learn  what  it  is  to  set  foot  unbidden 
on  the  dominions  of  the  King  of  Spain." 

"The  devil  take  you  and  the  King  of  Spain  together!" 


•'S.v<'>  Un\\-    TIIKY   TooK   THF.  ruMMl'MON          [(  HAP.  xxi. 

shouts  Amyas,  laughing  loudly.  "This  ground  belongs  to  him 
no  more  than  it  does  to  me,  but  to  the  Queen  Elizabeth,  in 
whose  name  I  have  taken  as  lawful  possession  of  it  as  you  ever 
did  of  Caraccas.  Fire,  men  !  and  God  defend  the  right !" 

Both  parties  obeyed  the  order;  Amyas  dropped  down  be- 
hind the  stockade  in  tune  to  let  a  caliver  bullet  whistle  over  his 
head ;  and  the  Spaniards  recoiled  as  the  narrow  face  of  the 
stockade  burst  into  one  blaze  of  musketry  and  swivels,  raking 
their  long  array  from  front  to  rear. 

The  front  ranks  fell  over  each  other  in  heaps ;  the  rear  ones 
turned  and  ran  ;  overtaken,  nevertheless,  by  the  English  bullets 
and  arrows,  which  tumbled  them  headlong  down  the  steep  path. 

"  Out,  men,  and  charge  them.  See !  the  Don  is  running 
like  the  rest !"  And  scrambling  over  the  abattis,  Amyas  and 
about  thirty  followed  them  fast ;  for  he  had  hope  of  learning 
from  some  prisoner  his  brother's  fate. 

Amyas  was  unjust  in  his  last  words.  Don  Guzman,  as  if 
by  miracle,  had  been  only  slightly  wounded  ;  and  seeing  his  men 
run,  had  rushed  back  and  tried  to  rally  them,  but  was  borne 
away  by  the  fugitives. 

However,  the  Spaniards  were  out  of  sight  among  the  thick 
bushes  before  the  English  could  overtake  them ;  and  Amyas, 
afraid  lest  they  should  rally  and  surround  his  small  party,  with- 
drew sorely  against  his  will,  and  found  in  the  pathway  fourteen 
Spaniards,  but  all  dead.  For  one  of  the  wounded,  with  more 
courage  than  wisdom,  had  fired  on  the  English  as  he  lay ;  and 
Amyas's  men,  whose  blood  was  maddened  both  by  their  desper- 
ate situation,  and  the  frightful  stories  of  the  rescued  galley- 
slaves,  had  killed  them  all  before  their  captain  could  stop  them. 

"  Are  you  mad  ?"  cries  Aymas,  as  he  strikes  up  one  fellow's 
sword.  "  Will  you  kill  an  Indian  1" 

And  he  drags  out  of  the  bushes  an  Indian  lad  of  sixteen, 
who,  slightly  wounded,  is  crawling  away  like  a  copper  snake 
along  the  ground. 

"  The  black  vermin  has  sent  an  arrow  through  my  leg ;  and 
poisoned  too,  most  like." 

"  God  grant  not :  but  an  Indian  is  worth  his  weight  in 
gold  to  us  now,"  said  Amyas,  tucking  his  prize  under  his  arm 
like  a  bundle.  The  lad,  as  soon  as  he  saw  there  was  no  escape, 
resigned  himself  to  his  fate  with  true  Indian  stoicism,  was 
brought  in,  and  treated  kindly  enough,  but  refused  to  eat.  For 
whii-h,  after  much  questioning,  he  gave  as  a  reason,  that  he 
would  make  them  kill  him  at  once ;  for  fat  him  they  should 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  387 

not ;  and  gradually  gave  them  to  understand  that  the  English 
always  (so  at  least  the  Spaniards  said)  fatted  and  ate  their 
prisoners  like  the  Caribs ;  and  till  he  saw  them  go  out  and  bury 
the  bodies  of  the  Spaniards,  nothing  would  persuade  him  that 
the  corpses  were  not  to  be  cooked  for  supper. 

However,  kind  words,  kind  looks,  and  the  present  of  that 
inestimable  treasure — a  knife,  brought  him  to  reason ;  and  he 
told  Amyas  that  he  belonged  to  a  Spaniard  who  had  an  "  en- 
comienda  "  of  Indians  some  fifteen  miles  to  the  south-west ;  that 
he  had  fled  from  his  master,  and  lived  by  hunting  for  some 
months  past ;  and  having  seen  the  ship  where  she  lay  moored, 
and  boarded  her  in  hope  of  plunder,  had  been  surprised  therein 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  forced  by  threats  to  go  with  them  as  a 
guide  in  their  search  for  the  English.  But  now  came  a  part  of 
his  story  which  filled  the  soul  of  Amyas  with  delight.  He  was 
an  Indian  of  the  Llanos,  or  great  savannahs  which  lay  to  the 
southward  beyond  the  mountains,  and  had  actually  been  upon 
the  Orinoco.  He  had  been  stolen  as  a  boy  by  some  Spaniards, 
who  had  gone  down  (as  was  the  fashion  of  the  Jesuits  even  as 
late  as  1790)  for  the  pious  purpose  of  converting  the  savages  by 
the  simple  process  of  catching,  baptizing,  and  making  servants 
of  those  whom  they  could  carry  off,  and  murdering  those  who 
resisted  their  gentle  method  of  salvation.  Did  he  know  the 
way  back  again  *?  Who  could  ask  such  a  question  of  an  Indian  1 
And  the  lad's  black  eyes  flashed  fire,  as  Amyas  offered  him 
liberty  and  iron  enough  for  a  dozen  Indians,  if  he  would  lead 
them  through  the  passes  of  the  mountains,  and  southward  to 
the  mighty  river,  where  lay  their  golden  hopes.  Hernando  de 
Serpa,  Amyas  knew,  had  tried  the  same  course,  which  was  sup- 
posed to  be  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  leagues,  and  failed, 
being  overthrown  utterly  by  the  Wikiri  Indians ;  but  Amyas 
knew  enough  of  the  Spaniards'  brutal  method  of  treating  those 
Indians,  to  be  pretty  sure  that  they  had  brought  that  catas- 
trophe upon  themselves,  and  that  he  might  avoid  it  well  enough 
by  that  common  justice  and  mercy  toward  the  savages  which 
he  had  learned  from  his  incomparable  tutor,  Francis  Drake. 

Now  was  the  time  to  speak ;  and,  assembling  his  men 
around  him,  Amyas  opened  his  whole  heart,  simply  and  man- 
fully. This  was  their  only  hope  of  safety.  Some  of  them  had 
murmured  that  they  should  perish  like  John  Oxenham's  crew. 
This  plan  was  rather  the  only  way  to  avoid  perishing  like  them. 
Don  Guzman  would  certainly  return  to  seek  them;  and  not 
only  he,  but  land-forces  from  St.  Jago.  Even  if  the  stockade 


HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  COMMUNION          [CHAP.  XXI. 

waa  not  forced,  they  would  be  soon  starved  out ;  why  not  move 
at  once,  ere  the  Spaniards  could  return,  and  begin  a  blockade  1 
As  for  taking  St.  Jago,  it  was  impossible.  The  treasure  would 
all  IM-  sjitVly  hidden,  and  the  town  well  prepared  to  meet  them. 
If  they  wanted  gold  and  glory,  they  must  seek  it  elsewhere. 
Neither  was  there  any  use  in  marching  along  the  coast,  and 
trying  the  ports:  ships  could  outstrip  them,  and  the  country 
was  already  warned.  There  was  but  this  one  chance ;  and  on 
it  Amyas,  the  first  and  last  time  in  his  life,  waxed  eloquent, 
and  set  forth  the  glory  of  the  enterprise,  the  service  to  the 
queen,  the  salvation  of  heathens,  and  the  certainty  that,  if 
successful,  they  should  win  honour  and  wealth,  and  everlasting 
fame,  beyond  that  of  Cortes  or  Pizarro,  till  the  men,  sulky  at 
first,  warmed  every  moment ;  and  one  old  Pelican  broke  out 
with — 

"Yes,  sir!  we  didn't  go  round  the  world  with  you  for 
nought ;  and  watched  your  works  and  ways,  which  was  always 
those  of  a  gentleman,  as  you  are — who  spoke  a  word  for  a  poor 
fellow  when  he  was  in  a  scrape,  and  saw  all  you  ought  to  see, 
and  nought  that  you  ought  not.  And  we'll  follow  you,  sir,  all 
alone  to  ourselves ;  and  let  those  that  know  you  worse  follow 
after  when  they're  come  to  their  right  mind." 

Man  after  man  capped  this  brave  speech  ;  the  minority,  who, 
if  they  liked  little  to  go,  liked  still  less  to  be  left  behind,  gave  in 
their  consent  perforce ;  and,  to  make  a  long  story  short,  Amyas 
conquered,  and  the  plan  was  accepted. 

"  This,"  said  Amyas,  "  is  indeed  the  proudest  day  of  my  life  ! 
I  have  lost  one  brother,  but  I  have  gained  fourscore.  God  do 
so  to  me  and  more  also,  if  I  do  not  deal  with  you  according  to 
the  trust  which  you  have  put  in  me  this  day  !" 

We,  I  suppose,  are  to  believe  that  we  have  a  right  to  laugh  at 
Amyas's  scheme  as  frantic  and  chimerical.  It  is  easy  to  amuse 
ourselves  with  the  premisses,  after  the  conclusion  has  been  found 
for  us.  We  know,  now,  that  he  was  mistaken :  but  we  have 
not  discovered  his  mistake  for  ourselves,  and  have  no  right  to 
plume  ourselves  on  other  men's  discoveries.  Had  we  lived  in 
Amyas's  days,  we  should  have  belonged  either  to  the  many  wise 
men  who  believed  as  he  did,  or  to  the  many  foolish  men,  who 
not  only  sneered  at  the  story  of  Manoa,  but  at  a  hundred  other 
stories,  which  we  now  know  to  be  true.  Columbus  was  laughed 
at :  but  he  found  a  new  world,  nevertheless.  Cortes  was  laughed 
at :  but  lu>  found  Mexico.  Pizarro  :  but  he  found  Peru.  I  ask 
any  fair  reader  of  those  two  charming  books,  Mr.  Prescott's 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  389 

Conquest  of  Mexico  and  his  Conquest  of  Peru,  whether  the  true 
wonders  in  them  described  do  not  outdo  all  the  false  wonders 
of  Manoa. 

But  what  reason  was  there  to  think  them  false  1  One  quarter, 
perhaps,  of  America  had  been  explored,  and  yet  in  that  quarter 
two  empires  had  been  already  found,  in  a  state  of  mechanical, 
military,  and  agricultural  civilisation  superior,  in  many  things, 
to  any  nation  of  Europe.  Was  it  not  most  rational  to  suppose 
that  in  the  remaining  three-quarters  similar  empires  existed1? 
If  a  second  Mexico  had  been  discovered  in  the  mountains  of 
Parima,  and  a  second  Peru  in  those  of  Brazil,  what  right  would 
any  man  have  had  to  wonder  1  As  for  the  gold  legends,  nothing 
was  told  of  Manoa  which  had  not  been  seen  in  Peru  and  Mexico 
by  the  bodily  eyes  of  men  then  living.  Why  should  not  the 
rocks  of  Guiana  have  been  as  full  of  the  precious  metals  (we  do 
not  know  yet  that  they  are  not)  as  the  rocks  of  Peru  and  Mexico 
were  known  to  be  1  Even  the  details  of  the  story,  its  standing 
on  a  lake,  for  instance,  bore  a  probability  with  them.  Mexico 
actually  stood  in  the  centre  of  a  lake — why  should  not  Manoa  1 
The  Peruvian  worship  centred  round  a  sacred  lake — why  not 
that  of  Manoa  1  Pizarro  and  Cortes,  again,  were  led  on  to  their 
desperate  enterprises  by  the  sight  of  small  quantities  of  gold 
among  savages,  who  told  them  of  a  civilised  gold-country  near 
at  hand ;  and  they  found  that  those  savages  spoke  truth.  Why 
was  the  unanimous  report  of  the  Carib  tribes  of  the  Orinoco  to  be 
disbelieved,  when  they  told  a  similar  tale  1  Sir  Richard  Schom- 
burgk's  admirable  preface  to  Raleigh's  Guiana  proves,  surely,  that 
the  Indians  themselves  were  deceived,  as  well  as  deceivers.  It 
was  known,  again,  that  vast  quantities  of  the  Peruvian  treasure 
had  been  concealed  by  the  priests,  and  that  members  of  the 
Inca  family  had  fled  across  the  Andes,  and  held  out  against  the 
Spaniards.  Barely  fifty  years  had  elapsed  since  then ; — what 
more  probable  than  that  this  remnant  of  the  Peruvian  dynasty 
and  treasure  still  existed1?  Even  the  story  of  the  Amazons, 
though  it  may  serve  Hume  as  a  point  for  his  ungenerous  and 
untruthful  attempt  to  make  Raleigh  out  either  fool  or  villain, 
has  come  from  Spaniards,  who  had  with  their  own  eyes  seen 
the  Indian  women  fighting  by  their  husbands'  sides,  and  from 
Indians,  who  asserted  the  existence  of  an  Amazonian  tribe. 
What  right  had  Amyas,  or  any  man,  to  disbelieve  the  story1? 
The  existence  of  the  Amazons  in  ancient  Asia,  and  of  their  in- 
tercourse with  Alexander  the  Great,  was  then  an  accredited 
part  of  history,  which  it  would  have  been  gratuitous  imperti- 


390  iniw  TIIKV  T<M>K  THI:  CMMMI-NK-N        [,-,,Ai-.  xxi. 


to  deny.  Ami  what  if  some  stories  connected  these  war- 
like wmiifii  with  the  Emperor  of  Manoa,  and  the  capital  itself? 
This  generation  ought  surely  to  be  the  last  to  laugh  at  su<  h  a 
story,  at  least  as  long  as  the  Amazonian  guards  of  the  King  of 
Dahomey  continue  to  outvie  the  men  in  that  relentless  ferocity, 
with  which  they  have  subdued  every  neighbouring  tribe,  save 
the  Christians  of  Abbeokuta.  In  this  case,  as  in  a  hundred 
more,  fact  not  only  outdoes,  but  justifies  imagination  ;  and 
Amyas  spoke  common  sense  when  he  said  to  his  men  that 
day  — 

"  Let  fools  laugh  and  stay  at  home.  Wise  men  dare  and 
win.  Saul  went  to  look  for  his  father's  asses,  and  found  a  king- 
dom ;  and  Columbus,  my  men,  was  called  a  madman  for  only 
going  to  seek  China,  and  never  knew,  they  say,  until  his  dying 
day,  that  he  had  found  a  whole  new  world  instead  of  it.  Find 
Manoa  1  God  only,  who  made  all  things,  knows  what  we  may 
find  beside  1" 

So  underneath  that  giant  ceiba-tree,  those  valiant  men, 
reduced  by  battle  and  sickness  to  some  eighty,  swore  a  great 
oath,  and  kept  that  oath  like  men.  To  search  for  the  golden 
city  for  two  full  years  to  come,  whatever  might  befall  ;  to  stand 
to  each  other  for  weal  or  woe  ;  to  obey  their  officers  to  the  death  ; 
to  murmur  privately  against  no  man,  but  bring  all  complaints  to 
a  council  of  war  ;  to  use  no  profane  oaths,  but  serve  God  daily 
with  prayer  ;  to  take  by  violence  from  no  man,  save  from  their 
natural  enemies  the  Spaniards  ;  to  be  civil  and  merciful  to  all 
savages,  and  chaste  and  courteous  to  all  women  ;  to  bring  all 
booty  and  all  food  into  the  common  stock,  and  observe  to  the 
utmost  their  faith  with  the  adventurers  who  had  fitted  out  the 
ship  ;  and  finally,  to  march  at  sunrise  the  next  morning  toward 
the  south,  trusting  in  God  to  be  their  guide. 

"It  is  a  great  oath,  and  a  hard  one,"  said  Brimblecombe  ; 
"  but  God  will  give  us  strength  to  keep  it"  And  they  knelt 
all  together  and  received  the  Holy  Communion,  and  then  rose 
to  pack  provisions  and  ammunition,  and  lay  down  again  to  sleep 
and  to  dream  that  they  were  sailing  home  up  Torridge  stream  — 
as  Cavendish,  returning  from  round  the  world,  did  actually  sail 
home  up  Thames  but  five  years  afterwards  —  "with  mariners 
and  soldiers  clothed  in  silk,  with  sails  of  damask,  and  topsails 
of  cloth  of  gold,  and  the  richest  prize  which  ever  was  brought 
at  one  time  unto  English  shores." 

The  Cross  stands  upright  in  the  southern  sky.     It  is  the 


CHAP.  XXI.]  AT  HIGUEROTE.  391 

middle  of  the  night.  Gary  and  Yeo  glide  silently  up  the  hill 
and  into  the  camp,  and  whisper  to  Amyas  that  they  have  done 
the  deed.  The  sleepers  are  awakened,  and  the  train  sets  forth. 
Upward  and  southward  ever :  but  whither,  who  can  tell  1 
They  hardly  think  of  the  whither ;  but  go  like  sleep-walkers, 
shaken  out  of  one  land  of  dreams,  only  to  find  themselves  in 
another  and  stranger  one.  All  around  is  fantastic  and  un- 
earthly ;  now  each  man  starts  as  he  sees  the  figures  of  his 
fellows,  clothed  from  head  to  foot  in  golden  filigree ;  looks  up, 
and  sees  the  yellow  moonlight  through  the  fronds  of  the  huge 
tree-ferns  overhead,  as  through  a  cloud  of  glittering  lace.  Now 
they  are  hewing  their  way  through  a  thicket  of  enormous  flags  ; 
now  through  bamboos  forty  feet  high ;  now  they  are  stumbling 
over  boulders,  waist-deep  in  cushions  of  club-moss ;  now  they 
are  struggling  through  shrubberies  of  heaths  and  rhododendrons, 
and  woolly  incense-trees,  where  every  leaf,  as  they  brush  past, 
dashes  some  fresh  scent  into  their  faces,  and 

' '  The  winds,  with  musky  wing, 
About  the  cedarn  alleys  fling 
Nard  and  cassia's  balmy  smells." 

Now  they  open  upon  some  craggy  brow,  from  whence  they 
can  see  far  below  an  ocean  of  soft  cloud,  whose  silver  billows, 
girdled  by  the  mountain  sides,  hide  the  lowland  from  their 
sight.  And  from  beneath  the  cloud  strange  voices  rise  ;  the 
screams  of  thousand  night-birds,  and  wild  howls,  which  they 
used  at  first  to  fancy  were  the  cries  of  ravenous  beasts,  till  they 
found  them  to  proceed  from  nothing  fiercer  than  an  ape.  But 
what  is  that  deeper  note,  like  a  series  of  muffled  explosions — 
arquebuses  fired  within  some  subterranean  cavern, — the  heavy 
pulse  of  which  rolls  up  through  the  depths  of  the  unseen  forest  1 
They  hear  it  now  for  the  first  time,  but  they  will  hear  it  many 
a  time  again ;  and  the  Indian  lad  is  hushed,  and  cowers  close 
to  them,  and  then  takes  heart,  as  he  looks  upon  their  swords 
and  arquebuses  ;  for  that  is  the  roar  of  the  jaguar,  "  seeking 
his  meat  from  God." 

But  what  is  that  glare  away  to  the  northward  ?  The  yellow 
moon  is  ringed  with  gay  rainbows ;  but  that  light  is  far  too  red 
to  be  the  reflection  of  any  beams  of  hers.  Now  through  the 
cloud  rises  a  column  of  black  and  lurid  smoke ;  the  fog  clears 
away  right  and  left  around  it,  and  shows  beneath,  a  mighty  fire. 

The  men  look  at  each  other  with  questioning  eyes,  each  half 
suspecting,  and  yet  not  daring  to  confess  their  own  suspicions  ; 
and  Amyas  whispers  to  Yeo — 


392  HOW   TIIKV    T«M.  K    TMK  rnMMI'MON.  [,  ,,.U'.   XXI. 

"  You  took  care  to  flood  the  powder?" 

"  Ay,  ay,  sir,  and  to  unload  the  ordnance  too.  No  UK«  in 
making  a  noise  to  tell  the  Spaniards  our  whereabouts." 

Yea;  that  glare  rises  from  the  good  ship  Rose.  Amyas, 
like  Cortes  of  old,  has  burnt  his  ship,  and  retreat  is  now  im- 
possible. Forward  into  the  unknown  abyss  of  the  New  World, 
and  God  be  with  them  as  they  go ! 

The  Indian  knows  a  cunning  path  :  it  winds  along  the 
highest  ridges  of  the  mountains ;  but  the  travelling  is  far  more 
open  and  easy. 

They  have  passed  the  head  of  a  valley  which  leads  down  to 
St.  Yago.  Beneath  that  long  shining  river  of  mist,  which  ends 
at  the  foot  of  the  great  Silla,  lies  (so  says  the  Indian  lad)  the 
rich  capital  of  Venezuela ;  and  beyond,  the  gold-mines  of  Los 
Teques  and  Baruta,  which  first  attracted  the  founder  Diego  de 
Losada ;  and  many  a  longing  eye  is  turned  towards  it  as  they 
pass  the  saddle  at  the  valley  head ;  but  the  attempt  is  hopeless, 
they  turn  again  to  the  left,  and  so  down  towards  the  rancho, 
taking  care  (so  the  prudent  Amyas  had  commanded)  to  break 
down,  after  crossing,  the  frail  rope  bridge  which  spans  each 
torrent  and  ravine. 

They  are  at  the  rancho  long  before  daybreak,  and  have 
secured  there,  not  only  fourteen  mules,  but  eight  or  nine  Indians 
stolen  from  off  the  Llanos,  like  their  guide,  who  are  glad  enough 
to  escape  from  their  tyrants  by  taking  service  with  them.  And 
now  southward  and  away,  with  lightened  shoulders  and  hearts; 
for  they  are  all  but  safe  from  pursuit  The  broken  bridges 
prevent  the  news  of  their  raid  reaching  St.  Yago  until  night- 
fall ;  and  in  the  meanwhile,  Don  Guzman  returns  to  the  river 
mouth  the  next  day  to  find  the  ship  a  blackened  wreck,  and 
the  camp  empty ;  follows  their  trail  over  the  hills  till  he  is 
stopped  by  a  broken  bridge;  surmounts  that  difficulty,  and 
meets  a  second  ;  his  men  are  worn  out  with  heat,  and  a  little 
afraid  of  stumbling  on  the  heretic  desperadoes,  and  he  returns 
by  land  to  St.  Yago ;  and  when  he  arrives  there,  has  news 
from  home  which  gives  him  other  things  to  think  of  than 
following  those  mad  Englishmen,  who  have  vanished  into  the 
wilderness.  "  What  need,  after  all,  to  follow  them  ?"  asked 
the  Spaniards  of  each  other.  "  Blinded  by  the  devil,  whom 
they  serve,  they  rush  on  in  search  of  certain  death,  as  many  a 
larger  company  has  before  them,  and  they  will  find  it,  and  will 
trouble  La  Guayra  no  more  for  ever."  "Lutheran  dogs  and 
enemies  of  God,"  said  Don  Guzman  to  his  soldiers,  "  they  will 


CHAP.  XXII.]        THE  INQUISITION  IN  THE  INDIES.  393 

leave  their  bones  to  whiten  on  the  Llanos,  as  may  every  heretic 
who  sets  foot  on  Spanish  soil !" 

Will  they  do  so,  Don  Guzman  1  Or  wilt  thou  and  Amyas 
meet  again  upon  a  mightier  battlefield,  to  learn  a  lesson  which 
neither  of  you  yet  has  learned  ? 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  INQUISITION  IN  THE  INDIES. 

MY  next  chapter  is  perhaps  too  sad;  it  shall  be  at  least  as 
short  as  I  can  make  it ;  but  it  was  needful  to  be  written,  that 
readers  may  judge  fairly  for  themselves  what  sort  of  enemies 
the  English  nation  had  to  face  in  those  stern  days. 

Three  weeks  have  passed,  and  the  scene  is  shifted  to  a  long, 
low  range  of  cells  in  a  dark  corridor  in  the  city  of  Carthagena. 
The  door  of  one  is  open ;  and  within  stand  two  cloaked  figures, 
one  of  whom  we  know.  It  is  Eustace  Leigh.  The  other  is  a 
familiar  of  the  Holy  Office. 

He  holds  in  his  hand  a  lamp,  from  which  the  light  falls  on 
a  bed  of  straw,  and  on  the  sleeping  figure  of  a  man.  The  high 
white  brow,  the  pale  and  delicate  features — them  too  we  know, 
for  they  are  those  of  Frank.  Saved  half-dead  from  the  fury  of 
the  savage  negroes,  he  has  been  reserved  for  the  more  delicate 
cruelty  of  civilised  and  Christian  men.  He  underwent  the 
question  but  this  afternoon ;  and  now  Eustace,  his  betrayer,  is 
come  to  persuade  him — or  to  entrap  him?  Eustace  himself 
hardly  knows  whether  of  the  two. 

And  yet  he  would  give  his  life  to  save  his  cousin.  His 
life  ]  He  has  long  since  ceased  to  care  for  that.  He  has  done 
what  he  has  done,  because  it  is  his  duty;  and  now  he  is  to  do  his 
duty  once  more,  and  wake  the  sleeper,  and  argue,  coax,  threaten 
him  into  recantation  while  "  his  heart  is  still  tender  from  the 
torture,"  so  Eustace's  employers  phrase  it. 

And  yet  how  calmly  he  is  sleeping  !  Is  it  but  a  freak  of 
the  lamplight,  or  is  there  a  smile  upon  his  lips  1  Eustace  takes 
the  lamp  and  bends  over  him  to  see ;  and  as  he  bends  he  hears 
Frank  whispering  in  his  dreams  his  mother's  name,  and  a  name 
higher  and  holier  still. 

Eustace  cannot  find  the  heart  to  wake  him. 

"  Let  him  rest,"  whispers  he  to  his  companion.  "  After  all. 
I  fear  my  words  will  be  of"  little  use." 


394  TIIK  INQUISITION   IN   THK   INDIES.         [ciIAV.  XXII. 

"  I  fear  so  too,  sir.  Never  did  I  behold  a  more  obdurate 
lien-til'.  He  iliil  not  scruple  to  scoff  openly  at  their  holinesses." 

"  All ! "  said  Eustace ;  "  great  is  the  pravity  of  the  human 
heart,  and  the  power  of  Satan  !  Let  us  go  for  the  present" 

"Where  is  she?" 

"The  elder  sorceress,  or  the  younger?" 

"  The  younger — the " 

"The  Sefiora  de  Soto?  Ah,  poor  thing!  One  could  be 
sorry  for  her,  were  she  not  a  heretic."  And  the  man  eyed 
Eustace  keenly,  and  then  quietly  added,  "She  is  at  present 
with  the  notary  ;  to  the  benefit  of  her  soul,  I  trust — 

Eustace  half  stopped,  shuddering.  He  could  hardly  collect 
himself  enough  to  gasp  out  an  "Amen  !" 

"  Within  there,"  said  the  man,  pointing  carelessly  to  a  door 
as  they  went  down  the  corridor.  "  We  can  listen  a  moment,  if 
you  like ;  but  don't  betray  me,  Sefior." 

Eustace  knows  well  enough  that  the  fellow  is  probably  on 
the  watch  to  betray  him,  if  he  shows  any  signs  of  compunction ; 
at  least  to  report  faithfully  to  his  superiors  the  slightest  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  with  a  heretic ;  but  a  horrible  curiosity  pre- 
vails over  fear,  and  he  pauses  close  to  the  fatal  door.  His  face 
is  all  of  a  flame,  his  knees  knock  together,  his  ears  are  ringing, 
his  heart  bursting  through  his  ribs,  as  he  supports  himself 
against  the  wall,  hiding  his  convulsed  face  as  well  as  he  can 
from  his  companion. 

A  man's  voice  is  plainly  audible  within ;  low,  but  distinct. 
The  notary  is  trying  that  old  charge  of  witchcraft,  which  the 
Inquisitors,  whether  to  justify  themselves  to  their  own  con- 
sciences, or  to  whiten  their  villany  somewhat  in  the  eyes  of  the 
mob,  so  often  brought  against  their  victims.  And  then  Eustace's 
heart  sinks  within  him  as  he  hears  a  woman's  voice  reply, 
sharpened  by  indignation  and  agony — 

"  Witchcraft  against  Don  Guzman  ?  What  need  of  that, 
oh,  God  !  what  need  ?" 

"  You  deny  it  then,  Sefiora  ?  we  are  sorry  for  you ;  but " 

A  confused  choking  murmur  from  the  victim,  mingled  with 
words  which  might  mean  anything  or  nothing. 

"  She  has  confessed !"  whispered  Eustace ;  "saints,  I  thank 
you ! — she " 

A  wail  which  rings  through  Eustace's  ears,  and  brain,  and 
heart !  He  would  have  torn  at  the  door  to  open  it ;  but  his 
companion  forces  him  away.  Another,  and  another  wail,  while 
the  wretched  man  hurries  off,  stopping  his  ears  in  vain  against 


CHAP.  XXII.]        THE  INQUISITION  IN  THE  INDIES.  395 

those  piercing  cries,  which  follow  him,  like  avenging  angels, 
through  the  dreadful  vaults. 

He  escaped  into  the  fragrant  open  air,  and  the  golden  tropic 
moonlight,  and  a  garden  which  might  have  served  as  a  model 
for  Eden ;  but  man's  hell  followed  into  God's  heaven,  and  still 
those  wails  seemed  to  ring  through  his  ears. 

"Oh,  misery,  misery,  misery!"  murmured  he  to  himself 
through  grinding  teeth  ;  "  and  I  have  brought  her  to  this  !  I 
have  had  to  bring  her  to  it !  What  else  could  I  ?  Who  dare 
blame  me  *?  And  yet  what  devilish  sin  can  I  have  committed, 
that  requires  to  be  punished  thus  1  Was  there  no  one  to  be 
found  but  me  1  No  one  1  And  yet  it  may  save  her  soul.  It 
may  bring  her  to  repentance  ! " 

"  It  may,  indeed ;  for  she  is  delicate,  and  cannot  endure 
much.  You  ought  to  know  as  well  as  I,  Sefior,  the  merciful 
disposition  of  the  Holy  Office." 

"  I  know  it,  I  know  it,"  interrupted  poor  Eustace,  trembling 
now  for  himself.  "All  in  love — all  in  love. — A  paternal 
chastisement " 

"And  the  proofs  of  heresy  are  patent,  beside  the  strong 
suspicion  of  enchantment,  and  the  known  character  of  the  elder 
sorceress.  You  yourself,  you  must  remember,  Seilor,  told  us 
that  she  had  been  a  notorious  witch  in  England,  before  the 
Sefiora  brought  her  hither  as  her  attendant." 

"  Of  course  she  was ;  of  course.  Yes ;  there  was  no  other 
course  open.  And  though  the  flesh  may  be  weak,  sir,  in  my 
case,  yet  none  can  have  proved  better  to  the  Holy  Office  how 
willing  is  the  spirit ! " 

And  so  Eustace  departed ;  and  ere  another  sun  had  set,  he 
had  gone  to  the  principal  of  the  Jesuits ;  told  him  his  whole 
heart,  or  as  much  of  it,  poor  wretch,  as  he  dare  tell  to  himself; 
and  entreated  to  be  allowed  to  finish  his  novitiate,  and  enter  the 
order,  on  the  understanding  that  he  was  to  be  sent  at  once  back 
to  Europe,  or  anywhere  else  ;  "  Otherwise,"  as  he  said  frankly, 
"he  should  go  mad,  even  if  he  were  not  mad  already."  The 
Jesuit,  who  was  a  kindly  man  enough,  went  to  the  Holy  Office, 
and  settled  all  with  the  Inquisitors,  recounting  to  them,  to  set 
him  above  all  suspicion,  Eustace's  past  valiant  services  to  the 
Church.  His  testimony  was  no  longer  needed ;  he  left  Cartha- 
gena  for  Nombre  that  very  night,  and  sailed  the  next  week  I 
know  not  whither. 

I  say,  I  know  not  whither.  Eustace  Leigh  vanishes  hence- 
forth from  these  pages.  He  may  have  ended  as  General  of  his 


39G  THK  BANKS  OF  THE   META.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

Order,  lie  may  have  worn  out  his  years  in  some  tropic  forest, 
"  conquering  the  souls "  (including,  of  course,  the  bodies)  of 
Indians;  he  may  have  gone  back  to  his  old  work  in  England, 
und  been  the  very  Ballard  who  was  hanged  and  quartered  three 
years  afterwards  for  his  share  in  Babington's  villanous  con- 
spiracy :  I  know  not.  This  book  is  a  history  of  men  ;  of  men's 
virtues  and  sins,  victories  and  defeats  :  and  Eustace  is  a  man  no 
longer ;  he  is  become  a  thing,  a  tool,  a  Jesuit ;  which  goes  only 
where  it  is  sent,  and  does  good  or  evil  indifferently  as  it  is  bid ; 
which,  by  an  act  of  moral  suicide,  has  lost  its  soul,  in  the  hope 
of  saving  it ;  without  a  will,  a  conscience,  a  responsibility  (as 
it  fancies),  to  God  or  man,  but  only  to  "The  Society."  In  a 
word,  Eustace,  as  he  says  himself,  is  "dead."  Twice  dead,  I 
fear.  Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.  We  have  no  more  concern 
with  Eustace  Leigh. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   BANKS   OF    THE    META. 

"  My  mariners, 

Sonls  that  have  toil'd,  and  wrought,  and  thought  with  me — 
Death  closes  all :  but  something  ere  the  end, 
Some  work  of  noble  note,  may  yet  be  done, 
Not  unbecoming  men  that  strove  with  gods  ! " 

TKNNYSON'S  Ulysses. 

NEARLY  three  years  are  past  and  gone  since  that  little  band  had 
knelt  at  evensong  beneath  the  giant  tree  of  Guayra — years  of 
seeming  blank,  through  which  they  are  to  be  tracked  only  by 
scattered  notes  and  mis-spelt  names.  Through  untrodden  hills 
and  forests,  over  a  space  of  some  eight  hundred  miles  in  length 
by  four  hundred  in  breadth,  they  had  been  seeking  for  the 
Golden  City,  and  they  had  sought  in  vain.  They  had  sought  it 
along  the  wooded  banks  of  the  Orinoco,  and  beyond  the  roar- 
ing foam-world  of  Maypures,  and  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
mighty  Amazon.  They  had  gone  up  the  streams  even  into  Peru 
itself,  and  had  trodden  the  cinchona  groves  of  Loxa,  ignorant, 
as  all  the  world  was  then,  of  their  healing  virtues.  They  had 
seen  the  virgin  snows  of  Chimborazo  towering  white  above  the 
thunder-cloud,  and  the  giant  cone  of  Cotopaxi  blackening  in  its 
sullen  wrath,  before  the  fiery  streams  rolled  down  its  sides. 
Foiled  in  their  search  at  the  back  of  the  Andes,  they  had  turnnl 
eastward  once  more,  and  plunged  from  the  Alpine  cliffs  into 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  397 

"the  green  and  misty  ocean  of  the  Montana."  Slowly  and 
painfully  they  had  worked  their  way  northward  again,  along  the 
eastern  foot  of  the  inland  Cordillera,  and  now  they  were  bivou- 
acking, as  it  seems,  upon  one  of  the  many  feeders  of  the  Meta, 
which  flow  down  from  the  Suma  Paz  into  the  forest-covered 
plains.  There  they  sat,  their  watch-fires  glittering  on  the 
stream,  beneath  the  shadow  of  enormous  trees,  Amyas  and 
Gary,  Brimblecombe,  Yeo,  and  the  Indian  lad,  who  has  followed 
them  in  all  their  wanderings,  alive  and  well :  but  as  far  as  ever 
from  Manoa,  and  its  fairy  lake,  and  golden  palaces,  and  all  the 
wonders  of  the  Indian's  tale.  Again  and  again  in  their  wander- 
ings they  had  heard  faint  rumours  of  its  existence,  and  started 
off  in  some  fresh  direction,  to  meet  only  a  fresh  disappointment, 
and  hope  deferred,  which  maketh  sick  the  heart. 

There  they  sit  at  last — four-and-forty  men  out  of  the 
eighty-four  who  left  the  tree  of  Guayra  : — where  are  the  rest  1 

"Their  bones  are  scatter'd  far  and  wide, 
By  mount,  by  stream,  and  sea. " 

Drew,  the  master,  lies  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Negro,  and 
five  brave  fellows  by  him,  slain  in  fight  by  the  poisoned  arrows 
of  the  Indians,  in  a  vain  attempt  to  penetrate  the  mountain- 
gorges  of  the  Parima.  Two  more  lie  amid  the  valleys  of  the 
Andes,  frozen  to  death  by  the  fierce  slaty  hail  which  sweeps 
down  from  the  condor's  eyrie ;  four  more  were  drowned  at  one 
of  the  rapids  of  the  Orinoco ;  five  or  six  more  wounded  men  are 
left  behind  at  another  rapid  among  friendly  Indians,  to  be 
recovered  when  they  can  be :  perhaps  never.  Fever,  snakes, 
jaguars,  alligators,  cannibal  fish,  electric  eels,  have  thinned  their 
ranks  month  by  month,  and  of  their  march  through  the 
primaeval  wilderness  no  track  remains,  except  those  lonely 
graves. 

And  there  the  survivors  sit,  beside  the  silent  stream,  be- 
neath the  tropic  moon ;  sun-dried  and  lean,  but  strong  and  bold 
as  ever,  with  the  quiet  fire  of  English  courage  burning  un- 
dimmed  in  every  eye,  and  the  genial  smile  of  English  mirth 
fresh  on  every  lip ;  making  a  jest  of  danger  and  a  sport  of  toil, 
as  cheerily  as  when  they  sailed  over  the  bar  of  Bideford,  in  days 
which  seem  to  belong  to  some  antenatal  life.  Their  beards 
have  grown  down  upon  their  breasts ;  their  long  hair  is  knotted 
on  their  heads,  like  women's,  to  keep  off  the  burning  sunshine ; 
their  leggings  are  of  the  skin  of  the  delicate  Guazu-puti  deer ; 
their  shirts  are  patched  with  Indian  cotton  web ;  the  spoils  of 
jaguar,  puma,  and  ape  hang  from  their  shoulders.  Their  am- 


398  TIIK  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  [CHAP.  xxm. 

munition  is  long  since  spent,  their  muskets,  spoilt  by  the 
petual  vapour-bnth  of  the  steaming  woods,  are  left  behind  as 
useless  in  a  cave  by  some  cataract  of  the  Orinoco :  but  tlu-ir 
swords  are  bright  and  terrible  as  ever ;  and  they  carry  bows  of 
a  strength  which  no  Indian  arm  can  bend,  and  arrows  pointed 
with  the  remnants  of  their  armour ;  many  of  them,  too,  are 
armed  with  the  pocuna  or  blowgun  of  the  Indians — more  deadly, 
because  more  silent,  than  the  firearms  which  they  have  l.-t't 
behind  them.  So  they  have  wandered,  and  so  they  will  wiimlt-r 
still,  the  lords  of  the  forest  and  its  beasts ;  terrible  to  all  hostile 
Indians,  but  kindly,  just,  and  generous  to  all  who  will  deal 
faithfully  with  them ;  and  many  a  smooth-chinned  Carib  and 
Ature,  Solimo  and  Guahiba,  recounts  with  wonder  and  admira- 
tion the  righteousness  of  the  bearded  heroes,  who  proclaimed 
themselves  the  deadly  foes  of  the  faithless  and  murderous 
Spaniard,  and  spoke  to  them  of  the  great  and  good  queen 
beyond  the  seas,  who  would  send  her  warriors  to  deliver  and 
avenge  the  oppressed  Indian. 

The  men  are  sleeping  among  the  trees,  some  on  the  ground, 
and  some  in  grass-hammocks  slung  between  the  stems.  All  is 
silent,  save  the  heavy  plunge  of  the  tapir  in  the  river,  as  he 
tears  up  the  water-weeds  for  his  night's  repast.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  the  jaguar,  as  he  climbs  from  one  tree-top  to  another 
after  his  prey,  wakens  the  monkeys  clustered  on  the  boughs, 
and  they  again  arouse  the  birds,  and  ten  minutes  of  unearthly 
roars,  howls,  shrieks,  and  cacklings  make  the  forest  ring  as  if 
all  Pandemonium  had  broke  loose;  but  that  soon  dies  away 
again ;  and,  even  while  it  lasts,  it  is  too  common  a  matter  to 
awaken  the  sleepers,  much  less  to  interrupt  the  council  of  war 
which  is  going  on  beside  the  watch-fire,  between  the  three 
adventurers  and  the  faithful  Yeo.  A  hundred  times  have  they 
held  such  a  council,  and  in  vain ;  and,  for  aught  they  know, 
this  one  will  be  as  fruitless  as  those  which  have  gone  before 
it.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a  more  solemn  one  than  usual ;  for  the 
two  years  during  which  they  had  agreed  to  search  for  Manoa 
are  long  past,  and  some  new  place  must  be  determined  on, 
unless  they  intend  to  spend  the  rest  of  their  lives  in  that  green 
wilderness. 

"  Well,"  says  Will  Gary,  taking  his  cigar  out  of  his  mouth, 
"  at  least  we  have  got  something  out  of  those  last  Indians.  It 
is  a  comfort  to  have  a  puff  at  tobacco  once  more,  after  three 
weeks'  fasting." 

"  For  me,"  said  Jack  Brimblecombe,  "  Heaven  forgive  me  ! 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  399 

but  when  I  get  the  magical  leaf  between  my  teeth  again,  I  feel 
tempted  to  sit  as  still  as  a  chimney,  and  smoke  till  my  dying 
day,  without  stirring  hand  or  foot." 

"Then  I  shall  forbid  you  tobacco,  Master  Parson,"  said 
Amyas  ;  "for  we  must  be  up  and  away  again  to-morrow.  We 
have  been  idling  here  three  mortal  days,  and  nothing  done." 

"  Shall  we  ever  do  anything  ?  I  think  the  gold  of  Manoa 
is  like  the  gold  which  lies  where  the  rainbow  touches  the 
ground,  always  a  field  beyond  you." 

Amyas  was  silent  awhile,  and  so  were  the  rest.  There  was 
no  denying  that  their  hopes  were  all  but  gone.  In  the  immense 
circuit  which  they  had  made,  they  had  met  with  nothing  but 
disappointment. 

"  There  is  but  one  more  chance,"  said  he  at  length,  "  and 
that  is,  the  mountains  to  the  east  of  the  Orinoco,  where  we 
failed  the  first  time.  The  Incas  may  have  moved  on  to  them 
when  they  escaped." 

"  Why  not  \ "  said  Gary ;  "  they  would  so  put  all  the  forests, 
beside  the  Llanos  and  half-a-dozen  great  rivers,  between  them 
and  those  dogs  of  Spaniards." 

"  Shall  we  try  it  once  more  1 "  said  Amyas.  "  This  river 
ought  to  run  into  the  Orinoco ;  and  once  there,  we  are  again  at 
the  very  foot  of  the  mountains.  What  say  you,  Yeo  ? " 

"  I  cannot  but  mind,  your  worship,  that  when  we  came  up 
the  Orinoco,  the  Indians  told  us  terrible  stories  of  those  moun- 
tains, how  far  they  stretched,  and  how  difficult  they  were  to 
cross,  by  reason  of  the  cliffs  aloft,  and  the  thick  forests  in  the 
valleys.  And  have  we  not  lost  five  good  men  there  already  1 " 

"  What  care  we  ?  No  forests  can  be  thicker  than  those  we 
have  bored  through  already ;  why,  if  one  had  had  but  a  tail, 
like  a  monkey,  for  an  extra  warp,  one  might  have  gone  a  hun- 
dred miles  on  end  along  the  tree-tops,  and  found  it  far  pleasanter 
walking  than  tripping  in  withes,  and  being  eaten  up  with 
creeping  things,  from  morn  till  night." 

"  But  remember,  too,"  said  Jack,  "  how  they  told  us  to 
beware  of  the  Amazons." 

"  What,  Jack,  afraid  of  a  parcel  of  women  1 " 

"  Why  not  1 "  said  Jack,  "  I  wouldn't  run  from  a  man  as 
you  know ;  but  a  woman — it's  not  natural,  like.  They  must 
be  witches  or  devils.  See  how  the  Caribs  feared  them.  And 
there  were  men  there  without  necks,  and  with  their  eyes  in 
their  breasts,  they  said.  Now  how  could  a  Christian  tackle 
such  customers  as  them  1 " 


400  mi:  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  [CHAI-.  x.\m. 

"He  couldn't  cut  off  their  heads,  that's  crrtain  ;  Imt,  I 
suppose,  ii  poke  in  the  ribs  will  do  as  much  for  them  as  for 
thrir  nriirlilxiiirs." 

"Well,"  said  Jack;  "if  I  fight,  let  me  fight  honest  flesh 
ami  l>l(XKl,  that's  all,  and  none  of  these  outlandish  monsters. 
How  do  you  know  but  that  they  are  invulnerable  by  Art- 
magic?" 

"  How  do  you  know  that  they  are  1  And  as  for  the  Ama- 
zons," said  Gary,  "woman's  woman,  all  the  world  over.  I'll 
bet  that  you  may  wheedle  them  round  with  a  compliment  or 
two,  just  as  if  they  were  so  many  burghers'  wives.  1'ity  I 
have  not  a  court-suit  and  a  Spanish  hat.  I  would  have  taken 
an  orange  in  one  hand  and  a  handkerchief  in  the  other,  gone  all 
alone  to  them  as  ambassador,  and  been  in  a  week  as  great  with 
Queen  Blackfacealinda  as  ever  Raleigh  is  at  Whitehall" 

"Gentlemen!"  said  Yeo,  "where  you  go,  I  go;  and  not 
only  I,  but  every  man  of  us,  I  doubt  not ;  but  we  have  lost 
now  half  our  company,  and  spent  our  ammunition,  so  we  are 
no  better  men,  were  it  not  for  our  swords,  than  these  naked 
heathens  round  us.  Now  it  was,  as  you  all  know,  by  the 
wonder  and  noise  of  their  ordnance  (let  alone  their  horses,  which 
is  a  break-neck  beast  I  put  no  faith  in)  that  both  Cortes  and 
Pizarro,  those  imps  of  Satan,  made  their  golden  conquests,  with 
which  if  we  could  have  astounded  the  people  of  Manoa — 

"  Having  first  found  the  said  people,"  laughed  Amyas.  "  It 
is  like  the  old  fable.  Every  craftsman  thinks  his  own  trade 
the  one  pillar  of  the  commonweal" 

"  Well !  your  worship,"  quoth  Yeo,  "  it  may  be  that  being 
a  gunner  I  overprize  guns.  But  it  don't  need  slate  and  pencil 
to  do  this  sum — Are  forty  men  without  shot  as  good  as  eighty 
with?" 

"  Thou  art  right,  old  fellow,  right  enough,  and  I  was  only 
jesting  for  very  sorrow,  and  must  needs  laugh  about  it  lest  I 
weep  about  it.  Our  chance  is  over,  I  believe,  though  I  dare 
not  confess  as  much  to  the  men." 

"  Sir,"  said  Yeo,  "  I  have  a  feeling  on  me  that  the  Lord's 
hand  is  against  us  in  this  matter.  Whether  He  means  to  keep 
this  wealth  for  worthier  men  than  us,  or  whether  it  is  His  will 
to  hide  this  great  city  in  the  secret  place  of  His  presence  from 
the  strife  of  tongues,  and  so  to  spare  them  from  sinful  man's 
covetousness,  and  England  from  that  sin  and  luxury  which  I 
have  seen  gold  beget  among  the  Spaniards,  I  know  not,  sir  :  t •  -r 
who  knoweth  the  counsels  of  the  Lord  1  But  I  have  long  had 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  401 

a  voice  within  which  saith,  '  Salvation  Yeo,  thou  shalt  never 
behold  the  Golden  City  which  is  on  earth,  where  heathens 
worship  sun  and  moon  and  the  hosts  of  heaven ;  be  content, 
therefore,  to  see  that  Golden  City  which  is  above,  where  'is 
neither  sun  nor  moon,  but  the  Lord  God  and  the  Lamb  are  the 
light  thereof.'" 

There  was  a  simple  majesty  about  old  Yeo  when  he  broke 
forth  in  utterances  like  these,  which  made  his  comrades,  and 
even  Amyas  and  Gary,  look  on  him  as  Mussulmans  look  on 
madmen,  as  possessed  of  mysterious  knowledge  and  flashes  of 
inspiration ;  and  Brimblecombe,  whose  pious  soul  looked  up 
to  the  old  hero  with  a  reverence  which  had  overcome  all 
his  Churchman's  prejudices  against  Anabaptists,  answered 
gently, — 

"  Amen  !  amen !  my  masters  all :  and  it  has  been  on  my 
mind,  too,  this  long  time,  that  there  is  a  providence  against  our 
going  east ;  for  see  how  this  two  years  past,  whenever  we  have 
pushed  eastward,  we  have  fallen  into  trouble,  and  lost  good  men; 
and  whenever  we  went  Westward-ho,  we  have  prospered;  and  do 
prosper  to  this  day." 

"And  what  is  more,  gentlemen,"  said  Yeo,  "if,  as  Scrip- 
ture says,  dreams  are  from  the  Lord,  I  verily  believe  mine  last 
night  came  from  Him  ;  for  as  I  lay  by  the  fire,  sirs,  I  heard  my 
little  maid's  voice  calling  of  me,  as  plain  as  ever  I  heard  in  my 
life ;  and  the  very  same  words,  sirs,  which  she  learned  from  me 
and  my  good  comrade  William  Penberthy  to  say,  '  Westward- 
ho  !  jolly  mariners  all ! '  a  bit  of  an  ungodly  song,  my  masters, 
which  we  sang  in  our  wild  days ;  but  she  stood  and  called  it  as 
plain  as  ever  mortal  ears  heard,  and  called  again  till  I  answered, 
'  Coming !  my  maid,  coming ! '  and  after  that  the  dear  chuck 
called  no  more — God  grant  I  find  her  yet ! — and  so  I  woke." 

Gary  had  long  since  given  up  laughing  at  Yeo  about  the 
"  little  maid ;"  and  Amyas  answered, — 

"  So  let  it  be,  Yeo,  if  the  rest  agree  :  but  what  shall  we  do 
to  the  westward  ?" 

"Do?"  said  Gary;  "there's  plenty  to  do;  for  there's  plenty 
of  gold,  and  plenty  of  Spaniards,  too,  they  say,  on  the  other  side 
of  these  mountains :  so  that  our  swords  will  not  rust  for  lack  of 
adventures,  my  gay  knights-errant  all." 

So  they  chatted  on ;  and  before  night  was  half  through  a 
plan  was  matured,  desperate  enough — but  what  cared  those 
brave  hearts  for  that  1  They  would  cross  the  Cordillera  to 
Santa  Fd  de  Bogota\  of  the  wealth  whereof  both  Yeo  and  Amyas 

2  D 


402  TIIK    I'.ANKS   i.|     niK   MI.IA.  [.  IIAI-.   xxiil. 

had  often  heard  in  (lu-  Pacific :  try  to  seize  either  the  town 
or  some  convoy  uf  gold  going  from  it ;  make  for  the  nearest 
river  (there  was  said  to  be  a  large  one  which  ran  northward 
thence),  luiild  canoes,  and  try  t<>  reach  the  Northern  Sea  once 
more  ;  mid  then,  if  Heaven  prospered  them,  they  might  seize  a 
Spanish  ship,  and  make  their  way  home  to  England,  not, 
indeed,  with  the  wealth  of  Manoa,  but  with  a  fair  booty  of 
Spanish  gold.  This  was  their  new  dream.  It  was  a  wild  one: 
but  hardly  more  wild  than  the  one  which  Drake  had  fulfilled, 
and  not  as  wild  as  the  one  which  Oxenham  might  have  fulfilled, 
but  for  his  own  fatal  folly. 

Amyas  sat  watching  late  that  night,  sad  of  heart  To  give 
up  the  cherished  dream  of  years  was  hard ;  to  face  his  mother, 
harder  still :  but  it  must  be  done,  for  the  men's  sake.  So  the 
new  plan  was  proposed  next  day,  and  accepted  joyfully.  They 
would  go  up  to  the  mountains  and  rest  awhile;  if  possible,  bring 
up  the  wounded  whom  they  had  left  behind;  and  then,  try  a  new 
venture,  with  new  hopes,  perhaps  new  dangers;  they  were 
inured  to  the  latter. 

They  started  next  morning  cheerfully  enough,  and  for  three 
hours  or  more  paddled  easily  up  the  glassy  and  windless  reaches, 
between  two  green  flower-bespangled  walls  of  forest,  gay  with 
innumerable  birds  and  insects ;  while  down  from  the  branches 
which  overhung  the  stream  long  trailers  hung  to  the  water's 
edge,  and  seemed  admiring  in  the  clear  mirror  the  images  of 
their  own  gorgeous  flowers.  River,  trees,  flowers,  birds,  in- 
sects,— it  was  all  a  fairy-land  :  but  it  was  a  colossal  one ;  and 
yet  the  voyagers  took  little  note  of  it.  It  was  now  to  them  an 
everyday  occurrence,  to  see  trees  full  two  hundred  feet  high  one 
mass  of  yellow  or  purple  blossom  to  the  highest  twigs,  and  every 
branch  and  stem  one  hanging  garden  of  crimson  and  orange 
orchids  or  vanillas.  Common  to  them  were  all  the  fantastic 
and  enormous  shapes  with  which  Nature  bedecks  her  robes 
beneath  the  fierce  suns  and  fattening  rains  of  the  tropic  forest. 
Common  were  forms  and  colours  of  bird,  and  fish,  and  butterfly, 
more  strange  and  bright  than  ever  opium-eater  dreamed.  The 
long  processions  of  monkeys,  who  kept  pace  with  them  along 
the  tree-tops,  and  proclaimed  their  wonder  in  every  imaginable 
whistle,  and  grunt,  and  howl,  had  ceased  to  move  their  laughter, 
as  much  as  the  roar  of  the  jaguar  and  the  rustle  of  the  boa  had 
ceased  to  move  their  fear ;  and  when  a  brilliant  green  and  rose- 
coloured  fish,  flat-bodied  like  a  bream,  flab-finned  like  a  salmon, 
and  saw-toothed  like  a  shark,  leapt  clean  on  board  of  the  canoe 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  403 

to  escape  the  rush  of  the  huge  alligator  (whose  loathsome  snout, 
ere  he  could  stop,  actually  rattled  against  the  canoe  within  a 
foot  of  Jack  Brimblecombe's  hand),  Jack,  instead  of  turning 
pale,  as  he  had  done  at  the  sharks  upon  a  certain  memorable 
occasion,  coolly  picked  up  the  fish,  and  said,  "  He's  four  pound 
weight !  If  you  can  catch  '  pirai '  for  us  like  that,  old  fellow, 
just  keep  in  our  wake,  and  we'll  give  you  the  cleanings  for 
wages." 

Yes.  The  mind  of  man  is  not  so  "  infinite,"  in  the  vulgar 
sense  of  that  word,  as  people  fancy ;  and  however  greedy  the 
appetite  for  wonder  may  be,  while  it  remains  unsatisfied  in 
everyday  European  life,  it  is  as  easily  satiated  as  any  other 
appetite,  and  then  leaves  the  senses  of  its  possessor  as  dull  as 
those  of  a  city  gourmand  after  a  Lord  Mayor's  feast.  Only  the 
highest  minds, — our  Humboldts,  and  Bonplands,  and  Schom- 
burgks  (and  they  only  when  quickened  to  an  almost  unhealthy 
activity  by  civilisation) — can  go  on  long  appreciating  where 
Nature  is  insatiable,  imperious,  maddening,  in  her  demands  on 
our  admiration.  The  very  power  of  observing  wears  out  under 
the  rush  of  ever  new  objects ;  and  the  dizzy  spectator  is  fain  at 
last  to  shut  the  eyes  of  his  soul,  and  take  refuge  (as  West 
Indian  Spaniards  do)  in  tobacco  and  stupidity.  The  man,  too, 
who  has  not  only  eyes  but  utterance, — what  shall  he  do  where 
all  words  fail  him  1  Superlatives  are  but  inarticulate,  after  all, 
and  give  no  pictures  even  of  size  any  more  than  do  numbers  of  feet 
and  yards :  and  yet  what  else  can  we  do,  but  heap  superlative 
on  superlative,  and  cry,  "  Wonderful,  wonderful !  and  after  that 
wonderful,  past  all  whooping"?  What  Humboldt's  self  cannot 
paint,  we  will  not  try  to  daub.  The  voyagers  were  in  a  South 
American  forest,  readers.  Fill  up  the  meaning  of  those  words, 
each  as  your  knowledge  enables  you,  for  I  cannot  do  it  for  you. 

Certainly  those  adventurers  could  not.  The  absence  of  any 
attempt  at  word-painting,  even  of  admiration  at  the  glorious 
things  which  they  saw,  is  most  remarkable  in  all  early  voyagers, 
both  Spanish  and  English.  The  only  two  exceptions  which  I 
recollect  are  Columbus — (but  then  all  was  new,  and  he  was 
bound  to  tell  what  he  had  seen)— and  Kaleigh ;  the  two  most 
gifted  men,  perhaps,  with  the  exception  of  Humboldt,  who  ever 
set  foot  in  tropical  America ;  but  even  they  dare  nothing  but  a 
few  feeble  hints  in  passing.  Their  souls  had  been  dazzled  and 
stunned  by  a  great  glory.  Coming  out  of  our  European  Nature 
into  that  tropic  one,  they  had  felt  like  Plato's  men,  bred  in  the 
twilight  cavern,  and  then  suddenly  turned  round  to  the  broad  blaze 


404  TMK  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  [CHAP.  xxin. 

of  day ;  they  had  seen  things  awful  ami  unshakable  :  why  talk 
of  them,  except  to  say  with  the  Turks,  "  God  is  great !" 

So  it  was  with  these  men.  Ainon^  the  higher-hearted  of 
them,  the  uTumlrur  and  the  glory  around  had  attuned  tln-ir 
spirits  to  itself,  and  kept  up  in  them  a  lifty,  hcroical,  reverent 
frame  of  mind;  but  they  knew  as  little  about  the  trees  and 
animals  in  an  "  artistic "  or  "  critical "  point  of  view,  as  in  a 
scientific  one.  This  tree  the  Indians  called  one  unpronounceable 
name,  and  it  made  good  bows ;  that,  some  other  name,  and  it 
made  good  canoes;  6f  that,  you  could  eat  the  fruit;  that,  produced 
the  caoutchouc  gum,  useful  for  a  hundred  matters;  that,  was  what 
the  Indians  (and  they  likewise)  used  to  poison  their  arrows  with  ; 
from  the  ashes  of  those  palm-nuts  you  could  make  good  salt;  that 
tree,  again,  was  full  of  good  milk  if  you  bored  the  stem :  they 
drank  it,  and  gave  God  thanks,  and  were  not  astonished.  God 
was  great :  but  that  they  had  discovered  long  before  they  came 
into  the  tropics.  Noble  old  child-hearted  heroes,  with  just 
romance  and  superstition  enough  about  them  to  keep  them  from 
that  prurient  hysterical  wonder  and  enthusiasm,  which  is  simply, 
one  often  fears,  a  product  of  our  scepticism  !  We  do  not  trust 
enough  in  God,  we  do  not  really  believe  His  power  enough,  to  be 
ready,  as  they  were,  as  every  one  ought  to  be  on  a  God-made  earth, 
for  anything  and  everything  being  possible ;  and  then,  when  a 
wonder  is  discovered,  we  go  into  ecstasies  and  shrieks  over  it, 
and  take  to  ourselves  credit  for  being  susceptible  of  so  lofty  a 
feeling,  true  index,  forsooth,  of  a  refined  and  cultivated  mind. 

They  paddled  onward  hour  after  hour,  sheltering  themselves 
as  best  they  could  under  the  shadow  of  the  southern  bank,  while 
on  their  right  hand  the  full  sun -glare  lay  upon  the  enormous 
wall  of  mimosas,  figs,  and  laurels,  which  formed  the  northern 
forest,  broken  by  the  slender  shafts  of  bamboo  tufts,  and  decked 
with  a  thousand  gaudy  parasites ;  bank  upon  bank  of  gorgeous 
bloom  piled  upward  to  the  sky,  till  where  its  outline  cut  the 
blue,  flowers  and  leaves,  too  lofty  to  be  distinguished  by  the 
eye,  formed  a  broken  rainbow  of  all  hues  quivering  in  the 
ascending  streams  of  azure  mist,  until  they  seemed  to  melt  and 
mingle  with  the  very  heavens. 

And  as  the  sun  rose  higher  and  higher,  a  great  stillness  fell 
upon  the  forest.  The  jaguars  and  the  monkeys  had  hidden 
themselves  in  the  darkest  depths  of  the  woods.  The  birds' 
notes  died  out  one  by  one ;  the  very  butterflies  ceased  their 
flitting  over  the  tree-tops,  and  slept  with  outspread  wings  ujxm 
the  glossy  leaves,  undistinguishable  from  the  flowers  around 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  MET  A.  405 

them.  Now  and  then  a  colibri  whirred  downward  toward  the 
water,  hummed  for  a  moment  around  some  pendent  flower,  and 
then  the  living  gem  was  lost  in  the  deep  blackness  of  the  inner 
wood,  among  tree-trunks  as  huge  and  dark  as  the  pillars  of  some 
Hindoo  shrine ;  or  a  parrot  swung  and  screamed  at  them  from 
an  overhanging  bough  ;  or  a  thirsty  monkey  slid  lazily  down  a 
liana  to  the  surface  of  the  stream,  dipped  up  the  water  in  his 
tiny  hand,  and  started  chattering  back,  as  his  eyes  met  those  of 
some  foul  alligator  peering  upward  through  the  clear  depths 
below.  In  shaded  nooks  beneath  the  boughs,  the  capybaras, 
rabbits  as  large  as  sheep,  went  paddling  sleepily  round  and 
round,  thrusting  up  their  unwieldy  heads  among  the  blooms  of 
the  blue  water-lilies ;  while  black  and  purple  water-hens  ran  up 
and  down  upon  the  rafts  of  floating  leaves.  The  shining  snout 
of  a  fresh- water  dolphin  rose  slowly  to  the  surface ;  a  jet  of 
spray  whirred  up ;  a  rainbow  hung  upon  it  for  a  moment ;  and 
the  black  snout  sank  lazily  again.  Here  and  there,  too,  upon 
some  shallow  pebbly  shore,  scarlet  flamingoes  stood  dreaming 
knee-deep,  on  one  leg;  crested  cranes  pranced  up  and  down, 
admiring  their  own  finery ;  and  ibises  and  egrets  dipped  their 
bills  under  water  in  search  of  prey  :  but  before  noon  even  those 
had  slipped  away,  and  there  reigned  a  stillness  which  might  be 
heard— such  a  stillness  (to  compare  small  things  with  great)  as 
broods  beneath  the  rich  shadows  of  Amyas's  own  Devon  woods, 
or  among  the  lonely  sweeps  of  Exmoor,  when  the  heather  is  in 
flower — a  stillness  in  which,  as  Humboldt  says,  "  If  beyond  the 
silence  we  listen  for  the  faintest  undertones,  we  detect  a  stifled, 
continuous  hum  of  insects,  which  crowd  the  air  close  to  the 
earth  ;  a  confused  swarming  murmur  which  hangs  round  every 
bush,  in  the  cracked  bark  of  trees,  in  the  soil  undermined  by 
lizards,  millepedes,  and  bees ;  a  voice  proclaiming  to  us  that  all 
Nature  breathes,  that  under  a  thousand  different  forms  life 
swarms  in  the  gaping  and  dusty  earth,  as  much  as  in  the  bosom 
of  the  waters,  and  the  air  which  breathes  around." 

At  last  a  soft  and  distant  murmur,  increasing  gradually  to 
a  heavy  roar,  announced  that  they  were  nearing  some  cataract ; 
till  turning  a  point,  where  the  deep  alluvial  soil  rose  into  a  low 
cliif  fringed  with  delicate  ferns,  they  came  full  in  sight  of  a 
scene  at  which  all  paused :  not  with  astonishment,  but  with 
something  very  like  disgust. 

"Rapids  again  !"  grumbled  one.  "I  thought  we  had  had 
enough  of  them  on  the  Orinoco." 

"  We  shall  have  to  get  out,  and  draw  the  canoes  overland, 


•I  fiC,  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  [CHAP.  xxm. 

I  suppose.     Three  hours  will  be  lost,  and  in  the  very  hottest  of 
the  day,  too." 

"  There's  worse  behind  ;  don't  you  see  the  spray  behind  the 


"  Stop  grumbling,  my  masters,  and  don't  cry  out  before  you 
are  hurt.  Paddle  right  up  to  the  largest  of  those  islands,  and 
let  us  look  about  us." 

In  front  of  them  was  a  snow-white  bar  of  raging  foam,  some 
ten  feet  high,  along  which  were  ranged  three  or  four  islands  of 
black  rock.  Each  was  crested  with  a  knot  of  lofty  palms, 
whose  green  tops  stood  out  clear  against  the  bright  sky,  while 
the  lower  half  of  their  stems  loomed  hazy  through  a  luminous 
veil  of  rainbowed  mist.  The  banks  right  and  left  of  the  f:ill 
were  so  densely  fringed  with  a  low  hedge  of  shrubs,  that  land- 
ing seemed  all  but  impossible;  and  their  Indian  guide,  suddenly 
looking  round  him  and  whispering,  bade  them  beware  of  savages; 
and  pointed  to  a  canoe  which  lay  swinging  in  the  eddies  under 
the  largest  island,  moored  apparently  to  the  root  of  some  tree. 

"Silence  all!"  cried  Amyas,  "and  paddle  up  thither  and 
seize  the  canoe.  If  there  be  an  Indian  on  the  island,  we  will 
have  speech  of  him  :  but  mind  and  treat  him  friendly  ;  and  on 
your  lives,  neither  strike  nor  shoot,  even  if  he  offers  to  fight." 

So,  choosing  a  line  of  smooth  backwater  just  in  the  wake  of 
the  island,  they  drove  their  canoes  up  by  main  force,  and  fast- 
ened them  safely  by  the  side  of  the  Indian's,  while  Amyas, 
always  the  foremost,  sprang  boldly  on  shore,  whispering  to  the 
Indian  boy  to  follow  him. 

Once  on  the  island,  Amyas  felt  sure  enough,  that  if  its  wild 
tenant  had  not  seen  them  approach,  he  certainly  had  not  heard 
them,  so  deafening  was  the  noise  which  filled  his  brain,  and 
seemed  to  make  the  very  leaves  upon  the  bushes  quiver,  and  the 
solid  stone  beneath  his  feet  to  reel  and  ring.  For  two  hundred 
yards  and  more  above  the  fall  nothing  met  his  eye  but  one 
white  waste  of  raging  foam,  with  here  and  there  a  transverse 
dyke  of  rock,  which  hurled  columns  of  spray  and  surges  of 
beaded  water  high  into  the  air,  —  strangely  contrasting  with  the 
still  and  silent  cliffs  of  green  leaves  which  walled  the  river  right 
and  left,  and  more  strangely  still  with  the  knots  of  enormous 
palms  upon  the  islets,  which  reared  their  polished  shafts  a  hun- 
dred feet  into  the  air,  straight  and  upright  as  masts,  while  their 
broad  plumes  and  golden-clustered  fruit  slept  in  the  sunshine  far 
aloft,  the  image  of  the  stateliest  repose  amid  the  wildest  wrath 
of  Nature. 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  407 

He  looked  round  anxiously  for  the  expected  Indian  :  but  he 
was  nowhere  to  be  seen ;  and,  in  the  meanwhile,  as  he  stept 
cautiously  along  the  island,  which  was  some  fifty  yards  in  length 
and  breadth,  his  senses,  accustomed  as  they  were  to  such  sights, 
could  not  help  dwelling  on  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  scene ; 
on  the  garden  of  gay  flowers,  of  every  imaginable  form  and  hue, 
which  fringed  every  boulder  at  his  feet,  peeping  out  amid  delicate 
fern-fans  and  luxuriant  cushions  of  moss ;  on  the  chequered 
shade  of  the  palms,  and  the  cool  air,  which  wafted  down  from 
the  cataracts  above  the  scents  of  a  thousand  flowers.  Gradually 
his  ear  became  accustomed  to  the  roar,  and,  above  its  mighty 
undertone,  he  could  hear  the  whisper  of  the  wind  among  the 
shrubs,  and  the  hum  of  myriad  insects;  while  the  rock  manakin, 
with  its  saffron  plumage,  flitted  before  him  from  stone  to  stone, 
calling  cheerily,  and  seeming  to  lead  him  on.  Suddenly,  scram- 
bling over  the  rocky  flower-beds  to  the  other  side  of  the  isle,  he 
came  upon  a  little  shady  beach,  which,  beneath  a  bank  of  stone 
some  six  feet  high,  fringed  the  edge  of  a  perfectly  still  and  glassy 
bay.  Ten  yards  farther,  the  cataract  fell  sheer  in  thunder  :  but 
a  high  fern-fringed  rock  turned  its  force  away  from  that  quiet 
nook.  In  it  the  water  swung  slowly  round  and  round  in  glassy 
dark-green  rings,  among  which  dimpled  a  hundred  gaudy  fish, 
waiting  for  every  fly  and  worm  which  spun  and  quivered  on  the 
eddy.  Here,  if  anywhere,  was  the  place  to  find  the  owner  of 
the  canoe.  He  leapt  down  upon  the  pebbles ;  and  as  he  did  so, 
a  figure  rose  from  behind  a  neighbouring  rock,  and  met  him  face 
to  face. 

It  was  an  Indian  girl ;  and  yet,  when  he  looked  again, — 
was  it  an  Indian  girl  1  Amyas  had  seen  hundreds  of  those  deli- 
cate dark-skinned  daughters  of  the  forest,  but  never  such  a  one 
as  this.  Her  stature  was  taller,  her  limbs  were  fuller  and  more 
rounded ;  her  complexion,  though  tanned  by  light,  was  fairer 
by  far  than  his  own  sunburnt  face ;  her  hair,  crowned  with  a 
garland  of  white  flowers,  was  not  lank,  and  straight,  and  black, 
like  an  Indian's,  but  of  a  rich,  glossy  brown,  and  curling  richly 
and  crisply  from  her  very  temples  to  her  knees.  Her  forehead, 
though  low,  was  upright  and  ample ;  her  nose  was  straight  and 
small ;  her  lips,  the  lips  of  a  European ;  her  whole  face  of  the 
highest  and  richest  type  of  Spanish  beauty ;  a  collar  of  gold 
mingled  with  green  beads  hung  round  her  neck,  and  golden 
bracelets  were  on  her  wrists.  All  the  strange  and  dim  legends 
of  white  Indians,  and  of  nations  of  a  higher  race  than  Carib, 
or  Arrowak,  or  Solimo,  which  Amyas  had  ever  heard,  rose  up 


408  THE  BANKS  Ol    T1IK  MKTA.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

in  his  memory.  She  must  be  the  daughter  of  some  great  cacique, 
ix'ilmps  of  the  lost  Incas  themselves — why  not?  And  full  of 
simple  wonder,  he  gazed  upon  that  fairy  vision,  while  she,  un- 
abashed in  her  free  innocence,  gazed  fearlessly  in  return,  as  Eve 
might  have  done  in  Paradise,  upon  the  mighty  stature,  and  the 
strange  garments,  and  above  all,  on  the  bushy  beard  and  flow- 
ing yellow  locks,  of  the  Englishman. 

He  spoke  first,  in  some  Indian  tongue,  gently  and  smilingly, 
and  made  a  half-step  forward  ;  but  quick  as  light  she  caught  up 
from  the  ground  a  bow,  and  held  it  fiercely  toward  him,  fitted 
with  the  long  arrow,  with  which,  as  he  could  see,  she  had  been 
striking  fish,  for  a  line  of  twisted  grass  hung  from  its  barbed  head. 
Amyas  stopped,  laid  down  his  own  bow  and  sword,  and  made 
another  step  in  advance,  smiling  still,  and  making  all  Indian 
signs  of  amity  :  but  the  arrow  was  still  pointed  straight  at  his 
breast,  and  he  knew  the  mettle  and  strength  of  the  forest 
nymphs  well  enough  to  stand  still  and  call  for  the  Indian  boy ; 
too  proud  to  retreat,  but  in  the  uncomfortable  expectation  of 
feeling  every  moment  the  shaft  quivering  between  his  ribs. 

The  boy,  who  had  been  peering  from  above,  leaped  down  to 
them  in  a  moment ;  and  began,  as  the  safest  method,  grovelling 
on  his  nose  upon  the  pebbles,  while  he  tried  two  or  three  dialects, 
one  of  which  at  last  she  seemed  to  understand,  and  answered 
in  a  tone  of  evident  suspicion  and  anger. 

"  What  does  she  say  ?" 

"  That  you  are  a  Spaniard  and  a  robber,  because  you  have 
a  beard." 

"  Tell  her  that  we  are  no  Spaniards,  but  that  we  hate  them  ; 
and  are  come  across  the  great  waters  to  help  the  Indians  to 
kill  them." 

The  boy  translated  his  speech.  The  nymph  answered  by  a 
contemptuous  shake  of  the  head. 

"  Tell  her,  that  if  she  will  send  her  tribe  to  us,  we  will  do 
them  no  harm.  We  are  going  over  the  mountains  to  fight  the 
Spaniards,  and  we  want  them  to  show  us  the  way." 

The  boy  had  no  sooner  spoken,  than,  nimble  as  a  deer,  the 
nymph  had  sprung  up  the  rocks,  and  darted  between  the  palm- 
stems  to  her  canoe.  Suddenly  she  caught  sight  of  the  English 
boat,  and  stopped  with  a  cry  of  fear  and  rage. 

"Let  her  pass!"  shouted  Amyas,  who  had  followed  her 
close.  "  Push  your  boat  off,  and  let  her  pass.  Boy,  tell  her 
to  go  on ;  they  will  not  come  near  her." 

But  she  hesitated  still,  and  with  arrow  drawn  to  the  head, 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  409 

faced  first  on  the  boat's  crew,  and  then  on  Amyas,  till  the 
Englishmen  had  shoved  off  full  twenty  yards. 

Then,  leaping  into  her  tiny  piragua,  she  darted  into  the 
wildest  whirl  of  the  eddies,  shooting  along  with  vigorous  strokes, 
while  the  English  trembled  as  they  saw  the  frail  bark  spinning 
and  leaping  amid  the  muzzles  of  the  alligators,  and  the  huge 
dog-toothed  trout :  but  with  the  swiftness  of  an  arrow  she 
reached  the  northern  bank,  drove  her  canoe  among  the  bushes, 
and  leaping  from  it,  darted  through  some  narrow  opening  in  the 
bush,  and  vanished  like  a  dream. 

"What  fair  virago  have  you  unearthed?"  cried  Gary,  as 
they  toiled  up  again  to  the  landing-place. 

"Beshrew  me,"  quoth  Jack,  "but  we  are  in  the  very  land 
of  the  nymphs,  and  I  shall  expect  to  see  Diana  herself  next, 
with  the  moon  on  her  forehead." 

"  Take  care,  then,  where  you  wander  hereabouts,  Sir  John  : 
lest  you  end  as  Actaeon  did,  by  turning  into  a  stag,  and  being 
eaten  by  a  jaguar." 

"  Actseon  was  eaten  by  his  own  hounds,  Mr.  Gary,  so  the 
parallel  don't  hold.  But  surely  she  was  a  very  wonder  of 
beauty ! " 

Why  was  it  that  Amyas  did  not  like  this  harmless  talk  ? 
There  had  come  over  him  the  strangest  new  feeling ;  as  if  that 
fair  vision  was  his  property,  and  the  men  had  no  right  to  talk 
about  her,  no  right  to  have  even  seen  her.  And  he  spoke  quite 
surlily  as  he  said — 

"You  may  leave  the  women  to  themselves,  my  masters; 
you'll  have  to  deal  with  the  men  ere  long :  so  get  your  canoes 
up  on  the  rock,  and  keep  good  watch." 

"  Hillo  ! "  shouted  one  in  a  few  minutes,  "  here's  fresh  fish 
enough  to  feed  us  all  round.  I  suppose  that  young  cat-a-moun- 
tain  left  it  behind  her  in  her  hurry.  I  wish  she  had  left  her 
golden  chains  and  ouches  into  the  bargain." 

"Well,"  said  another,  "we'll  take  it  as  fair  payment,  for 
having  made  us  drop  down  the  current  again  to  let  her  lady- 
ship pass." 

"  Leave  that  fish  alone,"  said  Amyas ;  "  it  is  none  of  yours." 

"Why,  sir!"  quoth  the  finder  in  a  tone  of  sulky  depre- 
cation. 

"If  we  are  to  make  good  friends  with  the  heathens,  we 
had  better  not  begin  by  stealing  their  goods.  There  are  plenty 
more  fish  in  the  river ;  go  and  catch  them,  and  let  the  Indians 
have  their  own." 


410  NIK  BANKS  01    Till    MRTA.  [CHAP.  xxni. 

The  men  were  accustomed  enough  to  strict  and  stern  just  ire 
in  tilth-  dialing  \\iili  the  savages:  but  they  could  not  help 
looking  slily  at  each  other,  and  hinting,  when  out  of  sight,  that 
tin-  raptain  seemed  in  a  mighty  fuss  about  his  new  acquaint- 
ance. 

However,  they  were  expert  by  this  time  in  all  the  Indian's 
fishing  methods;  and  so  abundant  was  the  animal  life  which 
swarmed  around  every  rock,  that  in  an  hour  fish  enough  lay  on 
the  beach  to  feed  them  all ;  whose  forms  and  colours,  names  and 
families,  I  must  leave  the  reader  to  guess  from  the  wondrous 
pages  of  Sir  Richard  Schoinburgk,  for  I  know  too  little  of  them 
to  speak  without  the  fear  of  making  mistakes. 

A  full  hour  passed  before  they  saw  anything  more  of  their 
Indian  neighbours ;  and  then  from  under  the  bushes  shot  out  a 
canoe,  on  which  all  eyes  were  fixed  in  expectation. 

Amyas,  who  expected  to  find  there  some  remnant  of  a 
higher  race,  was  disappointed  enough  at  seeing  on  board  only 
the  usual  half-dozen  of  low-browed,  dirty  Orsons,  painted  red 
with  arnotto  :  but  a  grey-headed  elder  at  the  stern  seemed,  by 
his  feathers  and  gold  ornaments,  to  be  some  man  of  note  in  the 
little  woodland  community. 

The  canoe  came  close  up  to  the  island ;  Amyas  saw  that 
they  were  unarmed,  and,  laying  down  his  weapons,  advanced 
alone  to  the  bank,  making  all  signs  of  amity.  They  were 
returned  with  interest  by  the  old  man,  and  Amyas's  next  care 
was  to  bring  forward  the  fish  which  the  fair  nymph  had  left 
behind,  and,  through  the  medium  of  the  Indian  lad,  to  give  the 
cacique  (for  so  he  seemed  to  be)  to  understand  that  he  wished 
to  render  every  one  his  own.  This  offer  was  received,  as  Amyas 
expected,  with  great  applause,  and  the  canoe  came  alongside ; 
but  the  crew  still  seemed  afraid  to  land.  Amyas  bade  his  men 
throw  the  fish  one  by  one  into  the  boat ;  and  then  proclaimed 
by  the  boy's  mouth,  as  was  his  custom  with  all  Indians,  that  he 
and  his  were  enemies  of  the  Spaniards,  and  on  their  way  to 
make  war  against  them, — and  that  all  which  they  desired  was  a 
peaceable  and  safe  passage  through  the  dominions  of  the  mighty 
potentate  and  renowned  warrior  whom  they  beheld  before  them  ; 
for  Amyas  argued  rightly  enough,  that  even  if  the  old  fellow  aft 
was  not  the  cacique,  he  would  be  none  the  less  pleased  at  being 
mistaken  for  him. 

Whereon  the  ancient  worthy,  rising  in  the  canoe,  pointed  to 
heaven,  earth,  and  the  things  under,  and  commenced  a  long 
sermon,  in  tone,  manner,  and  articulation,  very  like  one  of  those 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  META.  411 

which  the  great  black-bearded  apes  were  in  the  habit  of  preaching 
every  evening  when  they  could  get  together  a  congregation  of 
little  monkeys  to  listen,  to  the  great  scandal  of  Jack,  who 
would  have  it  that  some  evil  spirit  set  them  on  to  mimic  him ; 
which  sermon,  being  partly  interpreted  by  the  Indian  lad, 
seemed  to  signify,  that  the  valour  and  justice  of  the  white  men 
had  already  reached  the  ears  of  the  speaker,  and  that  he  was 
sent  to  welcome  them  into  those  regions  by  the  Daughter  of  the 
Sun. 

"  The  Daughter  of  the  Sun  !"  quoth  Amyas ;  "  then  we  have 
found  the  lost  Incas  after  all." 

" We  have  found  something,"  said  Gary ;  "I  only  hope  it 
may  not  be  a  mare's  nest,  like  many  another  of  our  finding." 

"  Or  an  adder's, "  said  Yeo.     "  We  must  beware  of  treachery. " 

"  We  must  beware  of  no  such  thing,"  said  Amyas,  pretty 
sharply.  "  Have  I  not  told  you  fifty  times,  that  if  they  see 
that  we  trust  them,  they  will  trust  us,  and  if  they  see  that  we 
suspect  them,  they  will  suspect  us  1  And  when  two  parties  are 
watching  to  see  who  strikes  the  first  blow,  they  are  sure  to 
come  to  fisty-cuffs  from  mere  dirty  fear  of  each  other." 

Amyas  spoke  truth ;  for  almost  every  atrocity  against 
savages  which  had  been  committed  by  the  Spaniards,  and  which 
was  in  later  and  worse  times  committed  by  the  English,  was 
wont  to  be  excused  in  that  same  base  fear  of  treachery. 
Amyas's  plan,  like  that  of  Drake,  and  Cook,  and  all  great 
English  voyagers,  had  been  all  along  to  inspire  at  once  awe  and 
confidence,  by  a  frank  and  fearless  carriage ;  and  he  was 
not  disappointed  here.  He  bade  the  men  step  boldly  into  their 
canoes,  and  follow  the  old  Indian  whither  he  would.  The 
simple  children  of  the  forest  bowed  themselves  reverently  before 
the  mighty  strangers,  and  then  led  them  smilingly  across  the 
stream,  and  through  a  narrow  passage  in  the  covert,  to  a  hidden 
lagoon,  on  the  banks  of  which  stood,  not  Manoa,  but  a  tiny 
Indian  village. 


412  HOW  AMY  AS  WAS  [CHAP.  xxiv. 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

HOW    AMYA8    WAS   TEMPTED   OF    THE    DEVIL. 

"  Let  us  alone.     What  pleasure  can  we  have 

To  war  with  evil  ?     la  there  any  peace 
In  always  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave? 

All  things  have  rest,  and  ripen  toward  the  grave 
In  silence  ;  ripen,  fall,  and  cease : 
Give  us  long  rest  or  death,  dark  death,  or  dreamful  ease." 

TENNTSOK. 

HUMBOLDT  has  somewhere  a  curious  passage ;  in  which,  looking 
on  some  wretched  group  of  Indians,  squatting  stupidly  round 
their  fires,  besmeared  with  grease  and  paint,  and  devouring  ants 
and  clay,  he  somewhat  naively  remarks,  that  were  it  not  for 
science,  which  teaches  us  that  such  is  the  crude  material  of 
humanity,  and  this  the  state  from  which  we  all  have  risen,  he 
should  have  been  tempted  rather  to  look  upon  those  hapless 
beings  as  the  last  degraded  remnants  of  some  fallen  and  dying 
race.  One  wishes  that  the  great  traveller  had  been  bold  enough 
to  yield  to  that  temptation,  which  bis  own  reason  and  common 
sense  presented  to  him  as  the  real  explanation  of  the  sad  sight, 
instead  of  following  the  dogmas  of  a  so-called  science,  which 
has  not  a  fact  whereon  to  base  its  wild  notion,  and  must  ignore 
a  thousand  facts  in  asserting  it.  His  own  good  sense,  it  seems, 
coincided  instinctively  with  the  Bible  doctrine,  that  man  in  ;i 
state  of  nature  is  a  fallen  being,  doomed  to  death — a  view  which 
may  be  a  sad  one,  but  still  one  more  honourable  to  poor  human- 
ity than  the  theory,  that  we  all  began  as  some  sort  of  two- 
handed  apes.  It  is  surely  more  hopeful  to  believe  that  those 
poor  Otomacs  or  Guahibas  were  not  what  they  ought  to  be,  than 
to  believe  that  they  were.  It  is  certainly  more  complimentary 
to  them  to  think  that  they  had  been  somewhat  nobler  and  more 
prudent  in  centuries  gone  by,  than  that  they  were  such  block- 
heads as  to  have  dragged  on,  the  son  after  the  father,  for  all  the 
thousands  of  years  which  have  elapsed  since  man  was  made, 
without  having  had  wit  enough  to  discover  any  better  food  than 
ants  and  clay. 

Our  voyagers,  however,  like  those  of  their  time,  troubled 
their  heads  with  no  such  questions.  Taking  the  Bible  story  as 
they  found  it,  they  agreed  with  Humboldt's  reason,  and  not 
with  his  science ;  or,  to  speak  correctly,  agreed  with  Humboldt's 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  413 

self,  and  not  with  the  shallow  anthropologic  theories  which 
happened  to  be  in  vogue  fifty  years  ago ;  and  their  new  hosts 
were  in  their  eyes  immortal  souls  like  themselves,  "  captivated 
by  the  devil  at  his  will,"  lost  there  in  the  pathless  forests,  likely 
to  be  lost  hereafter. 

And  certainly  facts  seemed  to  bear  out  their  old-fashioned 
theories ;  although  these  Indians  had  sunk  by  no  means  so  low 
as  the  Guahibas  whom  they  had  met  upon  the  lower  waters  of 
the  same  river. 

They  beheld,  on  landing,  a  scattered  village  of  palm -leaf 
sheds,  under  which,  as  usual,  the  hammocks  were  slung  from 
tree  to  tree.  Here  and  there,  in  openings  in  the  forest,  patches  of 
cassava  and  indigo  appeared ;  and  there  was  a  look  of  neatness 
and  comfort  about  the  little  settlement  superior  to  the  average. 

But  now  for  the  signs  of  the  evil  spirit.  Certainly  it  was 
no  good  spirit  who  had  inspired  them  with  the  art  of  music ;  or 
else  (as  Gary  said)  Apollo  and  Mercury  (if  they  ever  visited 
America)  had  played  their  forefathers  a  shabby  trick,  and  put 
them  off  with  very  poor  instruments,  and  still  poorer  taste. 
For  on  either  side  of  the  landing-place  were  arranged  four  or  five 
stout  fellows,  each  with  a  tall  drum,  or  long  earthen  trumpet, 
swelling  out  in  the  course  of  its  length  into  several  hollow  balls, 
from  which  arose,  the  moment  the  strangers  set  foot  on  shore, 
so  deafening  a  cacophony  of  howls,  and  groans,  and  thumps,  as 
fully  to  justify  Yeo's  remark,  "  They  are  calling  upon  their 
devil,  sir."  To  which  Gary  answered,  with  some  show  of 
reason,  that  "  they  were  the  less  likely  to  be  disappointed,  for 
none  but  Sir  Urian  would  ever  come  to  listen  to  such  a  noise." 

"And  you  mark,  sirs,"  said  Yeo,  "there's  some  feast  or 
sacrifice  toward.  I'm  not  over-confident  of  them  yet." 

"  Nonsense ! "  said  Amyas,  "  we  could  kill  every  soul  of 
them  in  half-an-hour,  and  they  know  that  as  well  as  me." 

But  some  great  demonstration  was  plainly  toward ;  for  the 
children  of  the  forest  were  arrayed  in  two  lines,  right  and  left 
of  the  open  space,  the  men  in  front,  and  the  women  behind ; 
and  all  bedizened,  to  the  best  of  their  power,  with  arnotto, 
indigo,  and  feathers. 

Next,  with  a  hideous  yell,  leapt  into  the  centre  of  the  space 
a  personage  who  certainly  could  not  have  complained  if  any  one 
had  taken  him  for  the  devil,  for  he  had  dressed  himself  up 
carefully  for  that  very  intent,  in  a  jaguar-skin  with  a  long  tail, 
grinning  teeth,  a  pair  of  horns,  a  plume  of  black  and  yellow 
feathers,  and  a  huge  rattle. 


414  llnW  AMYAS  WAS  [.-HAP.  xxiv. 

"  Here's  the  Piarhr,  tin-  rascal,"  says  Amyas. 

"  Ay,"  says  Yeo,  "  iu  Satan's  livery,  and  I've  no  doubt  his 
are  according,  trust  him  i'nr  it" 

"Don't  be  frightened,  Jack,"  says  Gary,  backing  up 
Brimblecombe  from  behind.  "It's  your  business  to  tackle 
him,  you  know.  At  him  boldly,  and  he'll  run." 

Whereat  all  the  men  laughed ;  and  the  Piache,  who  had 
intended  to  produce  a  very  solemn  impression,  hung  fire  a  little. 
However,  being  accustomed  to  get  his  bread  by  his  impudence, 
he  soon  recovered  himself,  advanced,  smote  one  of  the  musicians 
over  the  head  with  his  rattle  to  procure  silence ;  and  then  began 
a  harangue,  to  which  Amyas  listened  patiently,  cigar  in  mouth. 

"  What's  it  all  about,  boy  1 " 

"  He  wants  to  know  whether  you  have  seen  Amalivaca  on 
the  other  shore  of  the  great  water  ? " 

Amyas  was  accustomed  to  this  inquiry  after  the  mythic 
civiliser  of  the  forest  Indians,  who,  after  carving  the  mysterious 
sculptures  which  appear  upon  so  many  inland  cliffs  of  that 
region,  returned  again  whence  he  came,  beyond  the  ocean.  He 
answered,  as  usual,  by  setting  forth  the  praises  of  Queen 
Elizabeth. 

To  which  the  Piache  replied,  that  she  must  be  one  of 
Amalivaca's  seven  daughters,  some  of  whom  he  took  back  with 
him,  while  he  broke  the  legs  of  the  rest  to  prevent  their  running 
away,  and  left  them  to  people  the  forests. 

To  which  Amyas  replied,  that  his  queen's  legs  were  cer- 
tainly not  broken;  for  she  was  a  very  model  of  grace  and 
activity,  and  the  best  dancer  in  all  her  dominions ;  but  that  it 
was  more  important  to  him  to  know  whether  the  tribe  would 
give  them  cassava  bread,  and  let  them  stay  peaceably  on  that 
island,  to  rest  a  while  before  they  went  on  to  fight  the  clothed 
men  (the  Spaniards),  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains. 

On  which  the  Piache,  after  capering  and  turning  head  over 
heels  with  much  howling,  beckoned  Amyas  and  his  party  to 
follow  him;  they  did  so,  seeing  that  the  Indians  were  all 
unarmed,  and  evidently  in  the  highest  good  humour. 

The  Piache  went  toward  the  door  of  a  carefully  closed  hut, 
and  crawling  up  to  it  on  all-fours  in  most  abject  fashion,  began 
whining  to  some  one  within. 

"  Ask  what  he  is  about,  boy." 

The  hid  asked  the  old  cacique,  who  had  accompanied  them, 
and  received  for  answer,  that  he  was  consulting  the  Daughter 
of  the  Sun. 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  415 

"  Here  is  our  mare's  nest  at  last,"  quoth  Gary,  as  the  Piache 
from  whines  rose  to  screams  and  gesticulations,  and  then  to 
violent  convulsions,  foaming  at  the  mouth,  and  rolling  of  the 
eye-balls,  till  he  suddenly  sank  exhausted,  and  lay  for  dead. 

"  As  good  as  a  stage  play." 

"  The  devil  has  played  his  part,"  says  Jack ;  "  and  now  by 
the  rules  of  all  plays  Vice  should  come  on." 

"  And  a  very  fair  Vice  it  will  be,  I  suspect ;  a  right  sweet 
Iniquity,  my  Jack  !  Listen." 

And  from  the  interior  of  the  hut  rose  a  low  sweet  song,  at 
which  all  the  simple  Indians  bowed  their  heads  in  reverence ; 
and  the  English  were  hushed  in  astonishment ;  for  the  voice  was 
not  shrill  or  guttural,  like  that  of  an  Indian,  but  round,  clear, 
and  rich,  like  a  European's ;  and  as  it  swelled  and  rose  louder 
and  louder,  showed  a  compass  and  power  which  would  have 
been  extraordinary  anywhere  (and  many  a  man  of  the  party,  as 
was  usual  in  musical  old  England,  was  a  good  judge  enough  of 
such  a  matter,  and  coidd  hold  his  part  right  well  in  glee,  and 
catch,  and  roundelay,  and  psalm).  And  as  it  leaped,  and  ran, 
and  sank  again,  and  rose  once  more  to  fall  once  more,  all  but 
inarticulate,  yet  perfect  in  melody,  like  the  voice  of  bird  on 
bough,  the  wild  wanderers  were  rapt  in  new  delight,  and  did 
not  wonder  at  the  Indians  as  they  bowed  their  heads,  and  wel- 
comed the  notes  as  messengers  from  some  higher  world.  At 
last  one  triumphant  burst,  so  shrill  that  all  ears  rang  again,  and 
then  dead  silence.  The  Piache,  suddenly  restored  to  life,  jumped 
upright,  and  recommenced  preaching  at  Amyas. 

"  Tell  the  howling  villain  to  make  short  work  of  it,  lad ! 
His  tune  won't  do  after  that  last  one." 

The  lad,  grinning,  informed  Amyas  that  the  Piache  signified 
their  acceptance  as  friends  by  the  Daughter  of  the  Sun ;  that 
her  friends  were  theirs,  and  her  foes  theirs.  Whereon  the 
Indians  set  up  a  scream  of  delight,  and  Amyas,  rolling  another 
tobacco  leaf  up  in  another  strip  of  plantain,  answered, — 

"  Then  let  her  give  us  some  cassava,"  and  lighted  a  fresh 
cigar. 

Whereon  the  door  of  the  hut  opened,  and  the  Indians  pro- 
strated themselves  to  the  earth,  as  there  came  forth  the  same 
fair  apparition  which  they  had  encountered  upon  the  island, 
but  decked  now  in  feather-robes,  and  plumes  of  every  imagin- 
able hue. 

Slowly  and  stately,  as  one  accustomed  to  command,  she 
walked  up  to  Amyas,  glancing  proudly  round  on  her  prostrate 


416  Ilo\V  AMYA8  \V\^  [.-IIM-.  xxiv. 

udorcre,  and  pointing  with  ^nuvtul  arms  to  the  trees,  the  gardens, 
ami  the  huts,  gave  him  to  understand  by  signs  (so  expressive 
u<  n-  her  looks,  that  no  words  were  needed)  that  all  was  at  his 
MTV  ice ;  after  which,  taking  his  hand,  she  lifted  it  gently  to  her 
f>rrhead. 

At  that  sign  of  submission  a  shout  of  rapture  rose  from 
the  crowd  ;  and  as  the  mysterious  maiden  n-tin d  again  to 
her  hut,  they  pressed  round  the  English,  caressing  and  ad- 
miring, pointing  with  equal  surprise  to  their  swords,  to  their 
Indian  bows  and  blow-guns,  and  to  the  trophies  of  wild  beasts 
with  which  they  were  clothed ;  while  women  hastened  off  to 
bring  fruit,  and  flowers,  and  cassava,  and  (to  Amyas's  great 
anxiety)  calabashes  of  intoxicating  drink ;  and,  to  make  a  long 
story  short,  the  English  sat  down  beneath  the  trees,  and  feasted 
merrily,  while  the  drums  and  trumpets  made  hideous  music,  and 
lithe  young  girls  and  lads  danced  uncouth  dances,  which  so 
scandalised  both  Brimblecombe  and  Yeo,  that  they  persuaded 
Amyas  to  beat  an  early  retreat.  He  was  willing  enough  to  get 
back  to  the  island  while  the  men  were  still  sober ;  so  there  were 
many  leave-takings  and  promises  of  return  on  the  morrow,  and 
the  party  paddled  back  to  their  island-fortress,  racking  their  wits 
as  to  who  or  what  the  mysterious  maid  could  be. 

Amyas,  however,  had  settled  in  his  mind  that  she  was  one 
of  the  lost  Inca  race ;  perhaps  a  descendant  of  that  very  fair 
girl,  wife  of  the  Inca  Manco,  whom  Pizarro,  forty  years  before, 
had,  merely  to  torture  the  fugitive  king's  heart,  as  his  body  was 
safe  from  the  tyrant's  reach,  stripped,  scourged,  and  shot  to 
death  with  arrows,  uncomplaining  to  the  last. 

They  all  assembled  for  the  evening*  service  (hardly  a  day 
had  passed  since  they  left  England  on  which  they  had  not  done 
the  same) ;  and  after  it  was  over,  they  must  needs  sing  a  Psalm, 
and  then  a  catch  or  two,  ere  they  went  to  sleep ;  and  till  the 
moon  was  high  in  heaven,  twenty  mellow  voices  rang  out  above 
the  roar  of  the  cataract,  in  many  a  good  old  tune.  Once  or 
twice  they  thought  they  heard  an  echo  to  their  song :  but  they 
took  no  note  of  it,  till  Gary,  who  had  gone  apart  for  a  few 
minutes,  returned,  and  whispered  Amyas  away. 

"  The  sweet  Iniquity  is  mimicking  us,  lad." 

They  went  to  the  brink  of  the  river ;  and  there  (for  their 
ears  were  by  this  time  dead  to  the  noise  of  the  torrent)  they 
could  hear  plainly  the  same  voice  which  had  so  surprised  them 
in  the  hut,  repeating,  clear  and  true,  snatches  of  the  airs  which 
they  had  sung.  Strange  and  solemn  enough  was  the  effect  i>f 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  417 

the  men's  deep  voices  on  the  island,  answered  out  of  the  dark 
forest  by  those  sweet  treble  notes ;  and  the  two  young  men 
stood  a  long  while  listening  and  looking  out  across  the  eddies, 
which  swirled  down  golden  in  the  moonlight :  but  they  could 
see  nothing  beyond  save  the  black  wall  of  trees.  After  a  while 
the  voice  ceased,  and  the  two  returned  to  dream  of  Incas  and 
nightingales. 

They  visited  the  village  again  next  day ;  and  every  day  for 
a  week  or  more  :  but  the  maiden  appeared  but  rarely,  and  when 
she  did,  kept  her  distance  as  haughtily  as  a  queen. 

Amyas,  of  course,  as  soon  as  he  could  converse  somewhat 
better  with  his  new  friends,  was  not  long  before  he  questioned 
the  cacique  about  her.  But  the  old  man  made  an  owl's  face  at 
her  name,  and  intimated  by  mysterious  shakes  of  the  head,  that 
she  was  a  very  strange  personage,  and  the  less  said  about  her 
the  better.  She  was  "a  child  of  the  Sun,"  and  that  was 
enough. 

"  Tell  him,  boy,"  quoth  Gary,  "  that  we  are  the  children  of 
the  Sun  by  his  first  wife ;  and  have  orders  from  him  to  inquire 
how  the  Indians  have  behaved  to  our  step-sister,  for  he  cannot 
see  all  their  tricks  down  here,  the  trees  are  so  thick.  So  let 
him  tell  us,  or  all  the  cassava  plants  shall  be  blighted." 

"  Will,  Will,  don't  play  with  lying  !"  said  Amyas  :  but  the 
threat  was  enough  for  the  cacique,  and  taking  them  in  his 
canoe  a  full  mile  down  the  stream,  as  if  in  fear  that  the  won- 
derful maiden  should  overhear  him,  he  told  them,  in  a  sort  of 
rhythmic  chant,  how,  many  moons  ago  (he  could  not  tell  how 
many),  his  tribe  was  a  mighty  nation,  and  dwelt  in  Papamene, 
till  the  Spaniards  drove  them  forth.  And  how,  as  they  wandered 
northward,  far  away  upon  the  mountain  spurs  beneath  the 
flaming  cone  of  Cotopaxi,  they  had  found  this  fair  creature 
wandering  in  the  forest,  about  the  bigness  of  a  seven  years' 
child.  Wondering  at  her  white  skin  and  her  delicate  beauty, 
the  simple  Indians  worshipped  her  as  a  god,  and  led  her  home 
with  them.  And  when  they  found  that  she  was  human  like 
themselves,  their  wonder  scarcely  lessened.  How  could  so 
tender  a  being  have  sustained  life  in  those  forests,  and  escaped 
the  jaguar  and  the  snake  1  She  must  be  under  some  Divine 
protection :  she  must  be  a  daughter  of  the  Sun,  one  of  that 
mighty  Inca  race,  the  news  of  whose  fearful  fall  had  reached 
even  those  lonely  wildernesses ;  who  had,  many  of  them,  haunted 
for  years  as  exiles  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  Andes,  about  the 
Ucalayi  and  the  Maranon ;  who  would,  as  all  Indians  knew, 

2E 


418  HOW  AMYAS  WAN  [«  HAI-.  xxiv. 

rise  again  some  day  to  power,  when  bearded  white  men  should 
come  across  the  seas  to  restore  them  to  tln-ir  an. -it -ut  throne. 

So,  as  the  girl  grew  up  among  them,  she  was  tended  with 
royal  honours,  by  command  of  the  conjuror  of  the  tribe,  that  so 
IHT  forefather  the  Sun  might  be  propitious  to  them,  and  the  Incas 
might  show  favour  to  the  poor  ruined  Omaguas,  in  the  day  of  their 
coming  glory.  And  as  she  grew,  she  had  become,  it  seemed,  some- 
what of  a  prophetess  among  them,  as  well  as  an  object  of  fetish- 
worship ;  for  she  was  more  prudent  in  council,  valiant  in  war, 
and  cunning  in  the  chase,  than  all  the  elders  of  the  tribe ;  ami 
those  strange  and  sweet  songs  of  hers,  which  had  so  surpris. -.1 
the  white  men,  were  full  of  mysterious  wisdom  about  the  binl>, 
and  the  animals,  and  the  flowers,  and  the  rivers,  which  the  Sun 
and  the  Good  Spirit  taught  her  from  above.  So  she  had  lived 
among  them,  unmarried  still,  not  only  because  she  despised  the 
addresses  of  all  Indian  youths,  but  because  the  conjuror  had 
declared  it  to  be  profane  in  them  to  mingle  with  the  race  of  the 
Sun,  and  had  assigned  her  a  cabin  near  his  own,  where  she  was 
served  in  state,  and  gave  some  sort  of  oracular  responses,  as 
they  had  seen,  to  the  questions  which  he  put  to  her. 

Such  was  the  cacique's  tale;  on  which  Gary  remarked, 
probably  not  unjustly,  that  he  "dared  to  say  the  conjuror 
made  a  very  good  thing  of  it : "  but  Amyas  was  silent,  full  of 
dreams,  if  not  about  Manoa,  still  about  the  remnant  of  the 
Inca  race.  What  if  they  were  still  to  be  found  about  the 
southern  sources  of  the  Amazon  ?  He  must  have  been  very 
near  them  already,  in  that  case.  It  was  vexatious ;  but  at 
least  he  might  be  sure  that  they  had  formed  no  great  kingdom 
in  that  direction,  or  he  should  have  heard  of  it  long  ago.  Per- 
haps they  had  moved  lately  from  thence  eastward,  to  escape 
some  fresh  encroachment  of  the  Spaniards ;  and  this  girl  had 
been  left  behind  in  their  flight.  And  then  he  recollected,  with 
a  sigh,  how  hopeless  was  any  further  search  with  his  diminished 
band.  At  least,  he  might  learn  something  of  the  truth  from 
the  maiden  herself.  It  might  be  useful  to  him  in  some  future 
attempt ;  for  he  had  not  yet  given  up  Manoa.  If  he  but  got 
safe  home,  there  was  many  a  gallant  gentleman  (and  Raleigh 
came  at  once  into  his  mind)  who  would  join  him  in  a  fresh 
search  for  the  Golden  City  of  Guiana ;  not  by  the  upper  waters, 
but  by  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco. 

So  they  paddled  back,  while  the  simple  cacique  entreated 
them  to  tell  the  Sun,  in  their  daily  prayers,  how  well  the  wild 
people  had  treated  his  descendant ;  and  besought  them  not  to 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL. 

take  her  away  with  them,  lest  the  Sun  should  forget  the  poor 
Omaguas,  and  ripen  their  manioc  and  their  fruit  no  more. 

Amyas  had  no  wish  to  stay  where  he  was  longer  than  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  bring  up  the  sick  men  from  the  Orinoco ; 
but  this,  he  well  knew,  would  be  a  journey  probably  of  some 
months,  and  attended  with  much  danger. 

Gary  volunteered  at  once,  however,  to  undertake  the  adven- 
ture, if  half-a-dozen  men  would  join  him,  and  the  Indians  would 
send  a  few  young  men  to  help  in  working  the  canoe  :  but  this 
latter  item  was  not  an  easy  one  to  obtain ;  for  the  tribe  with 
whom  they  now  were,  stood  in  some  fear  of  the  fierce  and  brutal 
Guahibas,  through  whose  country  they  must  pass;  and  every 
Indian  tribe,  as  Amyas  knew  well  enough,  looks  on  each  tribe 
of  different  language  to  itself  as  natural  enemies,  hateful,  and 
made  only  to  be  destroyed  wherever  met.  This  strange  fact, 
too,  Amyas  and  his  party  attributed  to  delusion  of  the  devil, 
the  divider  and  accuser ;  and  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  were 
perfectly  right :  only  let  Amyas  take  care  that  while  he  is  dis- 
covering the  devil  in  the  Indians,  he  does  not  give  place  to  him 
in  himself,  and  that  in  more  ways  than  one.  But  of  that  more 
hereafter. 

Whether,  however,  it  was  pride  or  shyness  which  kept  the 
maiden  aloof,  she  conquered  it  after  a  while ;  perhaps  through 
mere  woman's  curiosity;  and  perhaps,  too,  from  mere  longing 
for  amusement  in  a  place  so  unspeakably  stupid  as  the  forest. 
She  gave  the  English  to  understand,  however,  that  though  they 
all  might  be  very  important  personages,  none  of  them  was  to  be 
her  companion  but  Amyas.  And  ere  a  month  was  past,  she 
was  often  hunting  with  him  far  and  wide  in  the  neighbouring 
forest,  with  a  train  of  chosen  nymphs,  whom  she  had  persuaded 
to  follow  her  example  and  spurn  the  dusky  suitors  around. 
This  fashion,  not  uncommon,  perhaps,  among  the  Indian  tribes, 
where  women  are  continually  escaping  to  the  forest  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  men,  and  often,  perhaps,  forming  temporary 
communities,  was  to  the  English  a  plain  proof  that  they  were 
near  the  land  of  the  famous  Amazons,  of  whom  they  had  heard 
so  often  from  the  Indians ;  while  Amyas  had  no  doubt  that,  as 
a  descendant  of  the  Incas,  the  maiden  preserved  the  tradition 
of  the  Virgins  of  the  Sun,  and  of  the  austere  monastic  rule  of 
the  Peruvian  superstition.  Had  not  that  valiant  German, 
George  of  Spires,  and  Jeronimo  Ortal  too,  fifty  years  before, 
found  convents  of  the  Sun  upon  these  very  upper  waters  ? 

So  a  harmless  friendship  sprang  up  between  Amyas  and  the 


420  HOW  AMYAS  WAS  [,  H  u-.  xxiv. 

girl,  \\liirh  soon  turned  to  good  account.  For  she  no  sooner 
heard  that  In-  needed  ;i  crew  of  Indians,  than  .she  consulted  the 
Piache,  assembled  the  trilx-,  and  ha\  ing  retired  to  IHT  lint, 
commenced  a  song,  which  (unless  the  Piaohe  lied)  w;w  a  n>m- 
mand  to  furnish  young  men  for  Gary's  expedition,  under  |M  nalt y 
nf  the  sovereign  di-pleasure  of  an  evil  spirit  with  an  unpro- 
nounceable name — an  argument  which  succeeded  on  the  .s|M't, 
and  the  canoe  departed  on  its  perilous  errand. 

John  Brimblecombe  had  great  doubts  whether  a  venture 
thus  started  by  direct  help  and  patronage  of  the  fiend  would 
succeed;  and  Amyas  himself,  disliking  the  humbug,  t<>ld 
canora  that  it  would  be  better  to  have  told  the  tribe  that  it 
was  a  good  deed,  and  pleasing  to  the  Good  Spirit. 

"Ah!"  said  she  naively  enough,  "they  know  better  than 
that.  The  Good  Spirit  is  big  and  lazy;  and  he  smiles,  and 
takes  no  trouble :  but  the  little  bad  spirit,  he  is  so  busy — 
here,  and  there,  and  everywhere,"  and  she  waved  her  pretty 
hands  up  and  down;  "he  is  the  useful  one  to  have  for  a  friend!" 
Which  sentiment  the  Piache  much  approved,  as  beeame  his 
occupation ;  and  once  told  Brimblecombe  pretty  sharply,  that 
he  was  a  meddlesome  fellow  for  telling  the  Indians  that  the 
Good  Spirit  cared  for  them  ;  "  for,"  quoth  he,  "  if  they  begin  to 
ask  the  Good  Spirit  for  what  they  want,  who  will  bring  me 
cassava  and  coca  for  keeping  the  bad  spirit  quiet  1"  This 
argument,  however  forcible  the  devil's  priests  in  all  ages  have 
felt  it  to  be,  did  not  stop  Jack's  preaching  (and  very  good  and 
righteous  preaching  it  was,  moreover),  and  much  less  the  morn- 
ing and  evening  service  in  the  island  camp.  This  last,  the 
Indians,  attracted  by  the  singing,  attended  in  such  numbers, 
that  the  Piache  found  his  occupation  gone,  and  vowed  to  put 
an  end  to  Jack's  Gospel  with  a  poisoned  arrow. 

Which  plan  he  (blinded  by  his  master,  Satan,  so  ,I;u-k 
phrased  it)  took  into  his  head  to  impart  to  Ayacanora,  as  the 
partner  of  his  tithes  and  offerings ;  and  was  exceedingly  aston- 
ished to  receive  in  answer  a  box  on  the  ear,  and  a  storm  of 
abuse.  After  which,  Ayacanora  went  to  Amyas,  and  telling 
him  all,  proposed  that  the  Piache  should  be  thrown  to  the 
alligators,  and  Jack  installed  in  his  place ;  declaring  that  what- 
soever the  bearded  men  said  must  be  true,  and  whosoever 
plotted  against  them  should  die  the  death. 

Jack,  however,  magnanimously  forgave  his  foe,  and  preached 
on,  of  course  with  fresh  zeal ;  but  not,  alas !  with  much 
success.  For  the  conjuror,  though  his  main  treasure  was  gone 


CHAP.  XXiv.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  421 

over  to  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  had  a  reserve  in  a  certain 
holy  trumpet,  which  was  hidden  mysteriously  in  a  cave  on  the 
neighbouring  hills,  not  to  be  looked  on  by  woman  under  pain 
of  death;  and  it  was  well  known,  and  had  been  known  for 
generations,  that  unless  that  trumpet,  after  fastings,  flagellations, 
and  other  solemn  rites,  was  blown  by  night  throughout  the 
woods,  the  palm-trees  would  bear  no  fruit ;  yea,  so  great  was 
the  fame  of  that  trumpet,  that  neighbouring  tribes  sent  at  the 
proper  season  to  hire  it  and  the  blower  thereof,  by  payment  of 
much  precious  trumpery,  that  so  they  might  be  sharers  in  its 
fertilising  powers. 

So  the  Piache  announced  one  day  in  public,  that  in  conse- 
quence of  the  impiety  of  the  Omaguas,  he  should  retire  to  a 
neighbouring  tribe,  of  more  religious  turn  of  mind ;  and  taking 
with  him  the  precious  instrument,  leave  their  palms  to  blight, 
and  themselves  to  the  evil  spirit. 

Dire  was  the  wailing,  and  dire  the  wrath  throughout  the 
village.  Jack's  words  were  allowed  to  be  good  words ;  but 
what  was  the  Gospel  in  comparison  of  the  trumpet  1  The 
rascal  saw  his  advantage,  and  began  a  fierce  harangue  against 
the  heretic  strangers.  As  he  maddened,  his  hearers  maddened; 
the  savage  nature,  capricious  as  a  child's,  flashed  out  in  wild 
suspicion.  Women  yelled,  men  scowled,  and  ran  hastily  to 
their  huts  for  bows  and  blow-guns.  The  case  was  grown 
critical.  There  were  not  more  than  a  dozen  men  with  Amy  as 
at  the  time,  and  they  had  only  their  swords,  while  the  Indian 
men  might  muster  nearly  a  hundred.  Amyas  forbade  his  men 
either  to  draw  or  to  retreat ;  but  poisoned  arrows  were  weapons 
before  which  the  boldest  might  well  quail ;  and  more  than  one 
cheek  grew  pale,  which  had  seldom  been  pale  before. 

"  It  is  God's  quarrel,  sirs  all,"  said  Jack  Brimblecombe ; 
"let  Him  defend  the  right." 

As  he  spoke,  from  Ayacanora's  hut  arose  her  magic  song, 
and  quivered  aloft  among  the  green  heights  of  the  forest. 

The  mob  stood  spell-bound,  still  growling  fiercely,  but  not 
daring  to  move.  Another  moment,  and  she  had  rushed  out, 
like  a  very  Diana,  into  the  centre  of  the  ring,  bow  in  hand, 
and  arrow  on  the  string. 

The  fallen  "  children  of  wrath "  had  found  their  match  in 
her ;  for  her  beautiful  face  was  convulsed  with  fury.  Almost 
foaming  in  her  passion,  she  burst  forth  with  bitter  revilings ; 
she  pointed  with  admiration  to  the  English,  and  then  with 
fiercest  contempt  to  the  Indians ;  and  at  last,  with  fierce  ges- 


•I  I"-'  H"\V    AMYAS    WAS  [CHAP.   XXIV. 

tures,  seemed  to  cast  off  the  very  dust  of  her  feet  against  them, 
ami  spiinj^ng  to  Amyass  side,  placed  herself  in  the  forefront  of 
the  Kir-rlish  kittle. 

The  whole  scene  was  so  sudden,  that  Amyas  had  hnnlly 
discovered  whether  she  came  as  friend  or  foe,  before  her  how 
was  raised.  He  had  just  time  to  strike  up  her  hand,  when  the 
arrmv  tlrw  post  the  ear  of  the  offending  Piache,  and  stuck 
quivering  in  a  tree. 

"  Let  me  kill  the  wretch  !  said  she,  stamping  with  rage ; 
but  Amyas  held  her  arm  firmly. 

"  Fools  !"  cried  she  to  the  tribe,  while  tears  of  anger  rolled 
down  her  cheeks.  "  Choose  between  me  and  your  trumpet ! 
I  am  a  daughter  of  the  Sun ;  I  am  white;  I  am  a  companion 
for  Englishmen  !  But  you  !  your  mothers  were  Guahibas,  and 
ate  mud ;  and  your  fathers — they  were  howling  apes !  Let 
them  sing  to  you  !  I  shall  go  to  the  white  men,  and  never  sing 
you  to  sleep  any  more ;  and  when  the  little  evil  spirit  misses 
my  voice,  he  will  come  and  tumble  you  out  of  your  hammocks, 
and  make  you  dream  of  ghosts  every  night,  till  you  grow  as 
thin  as  blow-guns,  and  as  stupid  as  aye-ayes  I"1 

This  terrible  counter-threat,  in  spite  of  the  slight  bathoc 
involved,  had  its  effect ;  for  it  appealed  to  that  dread  of  the 
sleep  world  which  is  common  to  all  savages :  but  the  conjuror 
was  ready  to  outbid  the  prophetess,  and  had  begun  a  fresh 
oration,  when  Amyas  turned  the  tide  of  war.  Bursting  into  a 
huge  laugh  at  the  whole  matter,  he  took  the  conjuror  by  his 
shoulders,  sent  him  with  one  crafty  kick  half-a-dozen  yards  off 
upon  his  nose ;  and  then,  walking  out  of  the  ranks,  shook  hands 
round  with  all  his  Indian  acquaintances. 

Whereon,  like  grown-up  babies,  they  all  burst  out  laughing 
too,  shook  hands  with  all  the  English,  and  then  with  each  other; 
being,  after  all,  as  glad  as  any  bishops  to  prorogue  the  convoca- 
tion, and  let  unpleasant  questions  stand  over  till  the  next 
session.  The  Piache  relented,  like  a  prudent  man ;  Ayacanora 
returned  to  her  hut  to  sulk ;  and  Amyas  to  his  island,  to  long 
for  Gary's  return,  for  he  felt  himself  on  dangerous  ground. 

At  last  Will  returned,  safe  and  sound,  and  as  merry  as  ever, 
not  having  lost  a  man  (though  he  had  had  a  smart  brush  with 
the  Guahibas).  He  brought  back  three  of  the  wounded  men, 
now  pretty  nigh  cured ;  the  other  two,  who  had  lost  a  leg 
apiece,  had  refused  to  come.  They  had  Indian  wives;  more 
than  they  could  eat ;  and  tobacco  without  end  :  and  if  it  were 
1  Two-toed  sloths. 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  423 

not  for  the  gnats  (of  which  Gary  said  that  there  were  more 
mosquitoes  than  there  was  air),  they  should  be  the  happiest  men 
alive.  Amyas  could  hardly  blame  the  poor  fellows ;  for  the 
chance  of  their  getting  home  through  the  forest  with  one  leg 
each  was  very  small,  and,  after  all,  they  were  making  the  best 
of  a  bad  matter.  And  a  very  bad  matter  it  seemed  to  him,  to 
be  left  in  a  heathen  land ;  and  a  still  worse  matter,  when  he 
overheard  some  of  the  men  talking  about  their  comrades'  lonely 
fate,  as  if,  after  all,  they  were  not  so  much  to  be  pitied.  He 
said  nothing  about  it  then,  for  he  made  a  rule  never  to  take 
notice  of  any  facts  which  he  got  at  by  eavesdropping,  however 
unintentional ;  but  he  longed  that  one  of  them  would  say  as 
much  to  him,  and  he  would  "give  them  a  piece  of  his  mind." 
And  a  piece  of  his  mind  he  had  to  give  within  the  week ;  for 
while  he  was  on  a  hunting  party,  two  of  his  men  were  missing, 
and  were  not  heard  of  for  some  days ;  at  the  end  of  which  time 
the  old  cacique  came  to  tell  him  that  he  believed  they  had 
taken  to  the  forest,  each  with  an  Indian  girl. 

Amyas  was  very  wroth  at  the  news.  First,  because  it  had 
never  happened  before :  he  could  say  with  honest  pride,  as 
Raleigh  did  afterwards  when  he  returned  from  his  Guiana 
voyage,  that  no  Indian  woman  had  ever  been  the  worse  for  any 
man  of  his.  He  had  preached  on  this  point  month  after  month, 
and  practised  what  he  preached ;  and  now  his  pride  was  sorely 
hurt. 

Moreover,  he  dreaded  offence  to  the  Indians  themselves  :  but 
on  this  score  the  cacique  soon  comforted  him,  telling  him  that 
the  girls,  as  far  as  he  could  find,  had  gone  off  of  their  own  free 
will ;  intimating  that  he  thought  it  somewhat  an  honour  to  the 
tribe  that  they  had  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  bearded 
men ;  and  moreover,  that  late  wars  had  so  thinned  the  ranks  of 
their  men,  that  they  were  glad  enough  to  find  husbands  for  their 
maidens,  and  had  been  driven  of  late  years  to  kill  many  of  their 
female  infants.  This  sad  story,  common  perhaps  to  every 
American  tribe,  and  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  their  extermina- 
tion, reassured  Amyas  somewhat :  but  he  could  not  stomach 
either  the  loss  of  his  men,  or  their  breach  of  discipline ;  and 
look  for  them  he  would.  Did  any  one  know  where  they  were  1 
If  the  tribe  knew,  they  did  not  care  to  tell :  but  Ayacanora,  the 
moment  she  found  out  his  wishes,  vanished  into  the  forest,  and 
returned  in  two  days,  saying  that  she  had  found  the  fugitives ; 
but  she  would  not  show  him  where  they  were,  unless  he  pro- 
mised not  to  kill  them.  He,  of  course,  had  no  mind  for  so 


424  HOW  AMYAS  WAS  [CHAP.  xxiv. 

rigorous  n  mrtlm.1 :  In-  Ixith  nrnlnl  the  men,  and  he  had  no 
malice  against  them, — for  the  one,  Ebuworthy,  was  a  plain, 
honest,  happy-go-lucky  sailor,  and  as  good  a  hand  as  there  was 
in  the  crew ;  and  the  other  was  that  same  ne'er-<lo-weel  Will 
Parrucombe,  his  old  schoolfellow,  who  had  been  tempted  by  the 
gijwy -Jesuit  at  Appledore,  and  resisting  that  bait,  had  made  a 
very  fair  seaman. 

So  forth  Amyas  went,  with  Ayacanora  as  a  guide,  some  five 
miles  upward  along  the  forest  slopes,  till  the  girl  whispered, 
"There  they  are;"  and  Amyas,  pushing  himself  gently  throuL'h 
a  thicket  of  bamboo,  beheld  a  scene  which,  in  spite  of  his  wrath, 
kept  him  silent,  and  perhaps  softened,  for  a  minute. 

On  the  farther  side  of  a  little  lawn,  the  stream  leapt  through 
a  chasm  beneath  overarching  vines,  sprinkling  eternal  freshness 
upon  all  around,  and  then  sank  foaming  into  a  clear  rock-basin, 
a  bath  for  Dian's  self.  On  its  farther  side,  the  crag  rose  some 
twenty  feet  in  height,  bank  upon  bank  of  feathered  ferns  and 
cushioned  moss,  over  the  rich  green  beds  of  which  drooped  a 
thousand  orchids,  scarlet,  white,  and  orange,  and  made  the  still 
pool  gorgeous  with  the  reflection  of  their  gorgeousness.  At  its 
more  quiet  outfall,  it  was  half-hidden  in  huge  fantastic  leaves 
and  tall  flowering  stems ;  but  near  the  waterfall  the  grassy  bank 
sloped  down  toward  the  stream,  and  there,  on  palm -leaves 
strewed  upon  the  turf,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  crags,  lay  the 
two  men  whom  Amyas  sought,  and  whom,  now  he  had  found 
them,  he  had  hardly  heart  to  wake  from  their  delicious  dream. 

For  what  a  nest  it  was  which  they  had  found  !  the  air  was 
heavy  with  the  scent  of  flowers,  and  quivering  with  the  murmur 
of  the  stream,  the  humming  of  the  colibris  and  insects,  the 
cheerful  song  of  birds,  the  gentle  cooing  of  a  hundred  doves ; 
while  now  and  then,  from  far  away,  the  musical  wail  of  the 
sloth,  or  the  deep  toll  of  the  bell-bird,  came  softly  to  the  far. 
What  was  not  there  which  eye  or  ear  could  need  1  And  what 
which  palate  could  need  either  1  For  on  the  rock  above,  some 
strange  tree,  leaning  forward,  dropped  every  now  and  then  a 
luscious  apple  upon  the  grass  below,  and  huge  wild  plantains 
bent  beneath  their  load  of  fruit. 

There,  on  the  stream  bank,  lay  the  two  renegades  from 
civilised  life.  They  had  cast  away  their  clothes,  and  painted 
themselves,  like  the  Indians,  with  arnotto  and  indigo.  One  lay 
lazily  picking  up  the  fruit  which  fell  close  to  his  side ;  the  other 
sat,  his  back  against  a  cushion  of  soft  moss,  his  hands  foldnl 
languidly  upon  his  lap,  giving  himself  up  to  the  soft  influence 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  425 

of  the  narcotic  coca-juice,  with  half-shut  dreamy  eyes  fixed  on 
the  everlasting  sparkle  of  the  waterfall — 

"  While  beauty,  born  of  murmuring  sound, 
Did  pass  into  his  face." 

Somewhat  apart  crouched  their  two  dusky  brides,  crowned 
with  fragrant  flowers,  but  working  busily,  like  true  women,  for 
the  lords  whom  they  delighted  to  honour.  One  sat  plaiting 
palm  fibres  into  a  basket ;  the  other  was  boring  the  stem  of  a 
huge  milk -tree,  which  rose  like  some  mighty  column  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  lawn,  its  broad  canopy  of  leaves  unseen  through 
the  dense  underwood  of  laurel  and  bamboo,  and  betokened  only 
by  the  rustle  far  aloft,  and  by  the  mellow  shade  in  which  it 
bathed  the  whole  delicious  scene. 

Amyas  stood  silent  for  awhile,  partly  from  noble  shame  at 
seeing  two  Christian  men  thus  fallen  of  their  own  self-will ; 
partly  because — and  he  could  not  but  confess  that — a  solemn 
calm  brooded  above  that  glorious  place,  to  break  through  which 
seemed  sacrilege  even  while  he  felt  it  a  duty.  Such,  he  thought, 
was  Paradise  of  old ;  such  our  first  parents'  bridal  bower  !  Ah  ! 
if  man  had  not  fallen,  he  too  might  have  dwelt  for  ever  in  such 
a  home — with  whom  ?  He  started,  and  shaking  off  the  spell, 
advanced  sword  in  hand. 

The  women  saw  him,  and  springing  to  their  feet,  caught  up 
their  long  pocunas,  and  leapt  like  deer  each  in  front  of  her 
beloved.  There  they  stood,  the  deadly  tubes  pressed  to  their 
lips,  eyeing  him  like  tigresses  who  protect  their  young,  while 
every  slender  limb  quivered,  not  with  terror,  but  with  rage. 

Amyas  paused,  half  in  admiration,  half  in  prudence ;  for 
one  rash  step  was  death.  But  rushing  through  the  canes, 
Ayacanora  sprang  to  the  front,  and  shrieked  to  them  in  Indian. 
At  the  sight  of  the  prophetess  the  women  wavered,  and  Amyas, 
putting  on  as  gentle  a  face  as  he  could,  stepped  forward,  assuring 
them  in  his  best  Indian  that  he  would  harm  no  one. 

"  Ebsworthy !  Parracombe  !  Are  you  grown  such  savages 
already,  that  you  have  forgotten  your  captain  1  Stand  up,  men, 
and  salute  !" 

Ebsworthy  sprang  to  his  feet,  obeyed  mechanically,  and 
then  slipped  behind  his  bride  again,  as  if  in  shame.  The 
dreamer  turned  his  head  languidly,  raised  his  hand  to  his  fore- 
head, and  then  returned  to  his  contemplation. 

Amyas  rested  the  point  of  his  sword  on  the  ground,  and  his 
hands  upon  the  hilt,  and  looked  sadly  and  solemnly  upon  the 


426  HM\V  AMYAS  WAS  [CHAP.  xxiv. 

pair.  Ebeworthy  broke  the  silence,  half  reproachfully,  half 
trying  to  bluster  away  the  coming  storm. 

"  \Vi-ll,  noble  captain,  so  you've  hunted  out  us  poor  fellows ; 
and  want  to  drag  us  back  again  in  a  halter,  I  suppose  V 

"  I  came  to  look  for  Christians,  and  I  find  heathens ;  for 
in. -n,  and  I  find  swine.  I  shall  leave  the  heathens  to  their 
wilderness,  and  the  swine  to  their  trough.  Parracombe  ! " 

"  He's  too  happy  to  answer  you,  sir.  And  why  not  1  What 
do  you  want  of  us  ?  Our  two  years'  vow  is  out,  and  we  are 
free  men  now." 

"Free  to  become  like  the  beasts  that  perish?  You  are 
the  queen's  servants  still,  and  in  her  name  I  charge  you — 

"Free  to  be  happy,"  interrupted  the  man.  "With  the 
best  of  wives,  the  best  of  food,  a  warmer  bed  than  a  duke's, 
and  a  finer  garden  than  an  emperor's.  As  for  clothes,  why  the 
plague  should  a  man  wear  them  where  he  don't  need  them  ? 
As  for  gold,  what's  the  use  of  it  where  Heaven  sends  everything 
ready-made  to  your  hands  ?  Hearken,  Captain  Leigh.  You've 
been  a  good  captain  to  me,  and  I'll  repay  you  with  a  bit  of 
sound  advice.  Give  up  your  gold -hunting,  and  toiling  and 
moiling  after  honour  and  glory,  and  copy  us.  Take  that  fair 
maid  behind  you  there  to  wife ;  pitch  here  with  us ;  and  see  if 
you  are  not  happier  in  one  day  than  ever  you  were  in  all  your 
life  before." 

"  You  are  drunk,  sirrah  !  William  Parracombe !  Will 
you  speak  to  me,  or  shall  I  heave  you  into  the  stream  to  sober 
you?" 

"  Who  calls  William  Parracombe  ?"  answered  a  sleepy  voice. 

"  I,  fool ! — your  captain." 

"  I  am  not  William  Parracombe.  He  is  dead  long  ago  of 
hunger,  and  labour,  and  heavy  sorrow,  and  will  never  see  Bide- 
ford  town  any  more.  He  is  turned  into  an  Indian  now;  and 
he  is  to  sleep,  sleep,  sleep  for  a  hundred  years,  till  he  gets  his 
strength  again,  poor  fellow " 

"  Awake,  then,  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead, 
and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light !  A  christened  Englishman, 
and  living  thus  the  life  of  a  beast  ?" 

"  Christ  shall  give  thee  light  ?"  answered  the  same  unnatural 
abstracted  voice.  "  Yes ;  so  the  parsons  say.  And  they  say 
too,  that  He  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  I  should  have 
thought  His  light  was  as  near  us  here  as  anywhere,  and  nearer 
too,  by  the  look  of  the  place.  Look  round  ! "  said  he,  waving  a 
lazy  hand,  "  and  see  the  works  of  God,  and  the  place  of  Para- 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  427 

dise,  whither  poor  weary  souls  go  home  and  rest,  after  their 
masters  in  the  wicked  world  have  used  them  up,  with  labour 
and  sorrow,  and  made  them  wade  knee-deep  in  blood — I'm  tired 
of  blood,  and  tired  of  gold.  I'll  march  no  more ;  I'll  fight  no 
more ;  I'll  hunger  no  more  after  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit. 
What  shall  I  get  by  it  ?  Maybe  I  shall  leave  my  bones  in  the 
wilderness.  I  can  but  do  that  here.  Maybe  I  shall  get  home 
with  a  few  pezos,  to  die  an  old  cripple  in  some  stinking  hovel, 
that  a  monkey  would  scorn  to  lodge  in  here.  You  may  go  on ; 
it'll  pay  you.  You  may  be  a  rich  man,  and  a  knight,  and  live 
in  a  fine  house,  and  drink  good  wine,  and  go  to  Court,  and 
torment  your  soul  with  trying  to  get  more,  when  you've  got  too 
much  already;  plotting  and  planning  to  scramble  upon  your 
neighbour's  shoulders,  as  they  all  did — Sir  Richard,  and  Mr. 
Raleigh,  and  Chichester,  and  poor  dear  old  Sir  Warham,  and 
all  of  them  that  I  used  to  watch  when  I  lived  before.  They 
were  no  happier  than  I  was  then ;  I'll  warrant  they  are  no 
happier  now.  Go  your  ways,  captain ;  climb  to  glory  upon 
some  other  backs  than  ours,  and  leave  us  here  in  peace,  alone 
with  God  and  God's  woods,  and  the  good  wives  that  God  has 
given  us,  to  play  a  little  like  school  children.  It's  long  since 
I've  had  play-hours ;  and  now  I'll  be  a  little  child  once  more, 
with  the  flowers,  and  the  singing  birds,  and  the  silver  fishes  in 
the  stream,  that  are  at  peace,  and  think  no  harm,  and  want 
neither  clothes,  nor  money,  nor  knighthood,  nor  peerage,  but 
just  take  what  comes  ;  and  their  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them, 
and  Solomon  in  all  his  glory  was  not  arrayed  like  one  of  these 
— and  will  he  not  much  more  feed  us,  that  are  of  more  value 
than  many  sparrows  V 

"  And  will  you  live  here,  shut  out  from  all  Christian  ordi- 
nances 1 " 

"  Christian  ordinances  1  Adam  and  Eve  had  no  parsons  in 
Paradise.  The  Lord  was  their  priest,  and  the  Lord  was  their 
shepherd,  and  He'll  be  ours  too.  But  go  your  ways,  sir,  and 
send  up  Sir  John  Brimblecombe,  and  let  him  marry  us  here 
Church  fashion  (though  we  have  sworn  troth  to  each  other 
before  God  already),  and  let  him  give  us  the  Holy  Sacrament 
once  and  for  all,  and  then  read  the  funeral  service  over  us,  and 
go  his  ways,  and  count  us  for  dead,  sir — for  dead  we  are  to  the 
wicked  worthless  world  we  came  out  of  three  years  ago.  And 
when  the  Lord  chooses  to  call  us,  the  little  birds  will  cover  us 
with  leaves,  as  they  did  the  babies  in  the  wood,  and  fresher 
flowers  will  grow  out  of  our  graves,  sir,  than  out  of  yours  in 


HOW  AMY  AS  WAS  [•  HAP.  xxiv. 

that  bare  Northam  churchyard  there  beyond  the  weary,  wear)', 

\VrarV    -r;i." 

Hi-  voice  died  away  to  a  murmur,  and  his  head  sank  on  his 
breast 

Amyas  stood  spell-bound.  The  effect  of  the  narcotic  was 
all  but  miraculous  in  his  eyes.  The  sustained  eloquence,  the 
iinvcl  richness  of  diction  in  one  seemingly  drowned  in  sensual 
sloth,  were,  in  his  eyes,  the  possession  of  some  evil  spirit.  And 
yet  he  could  not  answer  the  Evil  One.  His  English  heart,  full 
of  the  divine  instinct  of  duty  and  public  spirit,  told  him  that  it 
must  be  a  lie :  but  how  to  prove  it  a  lie]  And  he  stood  t'nr 
full  ten  minutes  searching  for  an  answer,  which  seemed  to  fly 
farther  and  farther  off  the  more  he  sought  for  it. 

His  eye  glanced  upon  Ayacanora.  The  two  girls  were 
whispering  to  her  smilingly.  He  saw  one  of  them  glance  a  look 
toward  him,  and  then  say  something,  which  raised  a  beautiful 
blush  in  the  maiden's  face.  With  a  playful  blow  at  the  speaker, 
she  turned  away.  Amyas  knew  instinctively  that  they  were 
giving  her  the  same  advice  as  Ebsworthy  had  given  to  him. 
Oh,  how  beautiful  she  was !  Might  not  the  renegades  have 
some  reason  on  their  side  after  all. 

He  shuddered  at  the  thought :  but  he  could  not  shake  it  off. 
It  glided  in  like  some  gaudy  snake,  and  wreathed  its  coils 
round  all  his  heart  and  brain.  He  drew  back  to  the  other  side 
of  the  lawn,  and  thought  and  thought 

Should  he  ever  get  home?  If  he  did,  might  he  not  get 
home  a  beggar  ?  Beggar  or  rich,  he  would  still  have  to  face  his 
mother,  to  go  through  that  meeting,  to  tell  that  tale,  perhaps, 
to  hear  those  reproaches,  the  forecast  of  which  had  weighed  on 
him  like  a  dark  thunder-cloud  for  two  weary  years ;  to  wipe  out 
which  by  some  desperate  deed  of  glory  he  had  wandered  the 
wilderness,  and  wandered  in  vain. 

Could  he  not  settle  here  ?  He  need  not  be  a  savage.  He 
and  his  might  Christianise,  civilise,  teach  equal  law,  mercy  in 
war,  chivalry  to  women ;  found  a  community  which  might  be 
hereafter  as  strong  a  barrier  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
Spaniard,  as  Manoa  itself  would  have  been.  Who  knew  the 
wealth  of  the  surrounding  forests  1  Even  if  there  were  no  gold, 
there  were  boundless  vegetable  treasures.  What  might  he  not 
export  down  the  rivers  t  This  might  be  the  nucleus  of  a  gmit 
commercial  settlement 

And  yet,  was  even  that  worth  while  1  To  settle  here  only 
to  torment  his  soul  with  fresh  schemes,  fresh  ambitions ;  not  to 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  429 

rest,  but  only  to  change  one  labour  for  another  ?  Was  not  your 
dreamer  right  ?  Did  they  not  all  need  rest  ?  What  if  they 
each  sat  down  among  the  flowers,  beside  an  Indian  bride? 
They  might  live  like  Christians,  while  they  lived  like  the  birds 
of  heaven. — 

What  a  dead  silence  !  He  looked  up  and  round ;  the  birds 
had  ceased  to  chirp ;  the  parroquets  were  hiding  behind  the 
leaves ;  the  monkeys  were  clustered  motionless  upon  the  highest 
twigs ;  only  out  of  the  far  depths  of  the  forest,  the  campanero 
gave  its  solemn  toll,  once,  twice,  thrice,  like  a  great  death-knell 
rolling  down  from  far  cathedral  towers.  Was  it  an  omen  ?  He 
looked  up  hastily  at  Ayacanora.  She  was  watching  him 
earnestly.  Heavens  !  was  she  waiting  for  his  decision  1  Both 
dropped  their  eyes.  The  decision  was  not  to  come  from  them. 

A  rustle !  a  roar !  a  shriek !  and  Amyas  lifted  his  eyes  in 
time  to  see  a  huge  dark  bar  shoot  from  the  crag  above  the 
dreamer's  head,  among  the  group  of  girls. 

A  dull  crash,  as  the  group  flew  asunder ;  and  in  the  midst, 
upon  the  ground,  the  tawny  limbs  of  one  were  writhing  beneath 
the  fangs  of  a  black  jaguar,  the  rarest  and  most  terrible  of  the 
forest  kings.  Of  one  1  But  of  which  1  Was  it  Ayacanora  1 
And  sword  in  hand,  Amyas  rushed  madly  forward ;  before  he 
reached  the  spot  those  tortured  limbs  were  still. 

It  was  not  Ayacanora,  for  with  a  shriek  which  rang  through 
the  woods,  the  wretched  dreamer,  wakened  thus  at  last,  sprang 
up  and  felt  for  his  sword.  Fool !  he  had  left  it  in  his  ham- 
mock !  Screaming  the  name  of  his  dead  bride,  he  rushed  on 
the  jaguar,  as  it  crouched  above  its  prey,  and  seizing  its  head 
with  teeth  and  nails,  worried  it,  in  the  ferocity  of  his  madness, 
like  a  mastiff-dog. 

The  brute  wrenched  its  head  from  his  grasp,  and  raised  its 
dreadful  paw.  Another  moment  and  the  husband's  corpse 
would  have  lain  by  the  wife's. 

But  high  in  air  gleamed  Amyas's  blade  ;  down  with  all  the 
weight  of  his  huge  body  and  strong  arm,  fell  that  most  trusty 
steel ;  the  head  of  the  jaguar  dropped  grinning  on  its  victim's 
corpse ; 

"  And  all  stood  still,  who  saw  him  fall, 
While  men  might  count  a  score." 

"0  Lord  Jesus,"  said  Amyas  to  himself,  "Thou  hast 
answered  the  devil  for  me !  And  this  is  the  selfish  rest  for 
which  I  would  have  bartered  the  rest  which  comes  by  working 
where  Thou  hast  put  me  ! " 


430  HOW  AMY  \s\\\s  [CIIAI-.  xxiv. 

They  bore  away  the  lithe  corpse  into  the  forest,  and  l>urit-<l 
it  under  soft  moss  and  virgin  mould ;  and  so  the  tair  <  l.iy  was 
transfigured  into  fairer  flowers,  and  the  poor,  gentle,  untaught 
spirit  returned  to  God  who  gave  it. 

And  then  Amyas  went  sadly  and  silently  back  again,  and 
Parraoombe  walked  after  him,  like  one  who  walks  in  sleep. 

Ebsworthy,  sobered  by  the  shock,  entreated  to  come  too : 
but  Amyas  forbade  him  gently, — 

"No,  lad,  you  are  forgiven.  God  forbid  that  I  should 
judge  you  or  any  man  !  Sir  John  shall  come  up  and  marry 
you ;  and  then,  if  it  still  be  your  will  to  stay,  the  Lord  forgive 
you,  if  you  be  wrong ;  in  the  meanwhile,  we  will  leave  with  you 
all  that  we  can  spare.  Stay  here  and  pray  to  God  to  make  you, 
and  me  too,  wiser  men." 

And  so  Amyas  departed.  He  had  come  out  stem  and 
proud ;  but  he  came  back  again  like  a  little  child. 

Three  days  after  Parracombe  was  dead.  Once  in  camp  he 
seemed  unable  to  eat  or  move,  and  having  received  absolution 
and  communion  from  good  Sir  John,  faded  away  without  disease 
or  pain,  "  babbling  of  green  fields,"  and  murmuring  the  name 
of  his  lost  Indian  bride. 

Amyas,  too,  sought  ghostly  counsel  of  Sir  John,  and  told 
him  all  which  had  passed  through  his  mind. 

"  It  was  indeed  a  temptation  of  Diabolus,"  said  that  simple 
sage ;  "  for  he  is  by  his  very  name  the  divider  who  sets  man 
against  man,  and  tempts  one  to  care  only  for  oneself,  and  forget 
kin  and  country,  and  duty  and  queen.  But  you  have  resisted 
him,  Captain  Leigh,  like  a  true-born  Englishman,  as  you  always 
are,  and  he  has  fled  from  you.  But  that  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  not  flee  from  him  too ;  and  so  I  think  the  sooner  we  are 
out  of  this  place,  and  at  work  again,  the  better  for  all  our 
souls." 

To  which  Amyas  most  devoutly  said,  "Amen!"  If  Aya- 
canora  were  the  daughter  of  ten  thousand  Incas,  he  must  get 
out  of  her  way  as  soon  as  possible. 

The  next  day  he  announced  his  intention  to  march  once 
more,  and  to  his  delight  found  the  men  ready  enough  to  move 
towards  the  Spanish  settlements.  One  thing  they  needed : 
gunpowder  for  their  muskets.  But  that  they  must  make  as 
they  went  along;  that  is,  if  they  could  get  the  materials. 
Charcoal  they  could  procure,  enough  to  set  the  world  on  fire ; 
but  nitre  they  had  not  yet  seen ;  perhaps  they  should  find  it 
among  the  hills  :  while  as  for  sulphur,  any  brave  man,  could  get 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  TEMPTED  OF  THE  DEVIL.  431 

that  where  there  were  volcanoes.  Who  had  not  heard  how 
one  of  Cortes'  Spaniards,  in  like  need,  was  lowered  in  a  basket 
down  the  smoking  crater  of  Popocatepetl,  till  he  had  gathered 
sulphur  enough  to  conquer  an  empire  1  And  what  a  Spaniard 
could  do  an  Englishman  could  do,  or  they  would  know  the 
reason  why.  And  if  they  found  none — why  clothyard  arrows 
had  done  Englishmen's  work  many  a  time  already,  and  they 
could  do  it  again,  not  to  mention  those  same  blow-guns  and 
their  arrows  of  curare  poison,  which,  though  they  might  be 
useless  against  Spaniards'  armour,  were  far  more  valuable  than 
muskets  for  procuring  food,  from  the  simple  fact  of  their  silence. 

One  thing  remained ;  to  invite  their  Indian  friends  to  join 
them.  And  that  was  done  in  due  form  the  next  day. 

Ayacanora  was  consulted,  of  course,  and  by  the  Piache,  too, 
who  was  glad  enough  to  be  rid  of  the  rival  preacher,  and  his 
unpleasantly  good  news  that  men  need  not  worship  the  devil, 
because  there  was  a  good  God  above  them.  The  maiden  sang 
most  melodious  assent ;  the  whole  tribe  echoed  it ;  and  all  went 
smoothly  enough  till  the  old  cacique  observed  that  before 
starting  a  compact  should  be  made  between  the  allies  as  to 
their  share  of  the  booty. 

Nothing  could  be  more  reasonable ;  and  Amyas  asked  him 
to  name  his  terms. 

"  You  take  the  gold,  and  we  will  take  the  prisoners." 

"  And  what  will  you  do  with  them  ?"  asked  Amyas,  who 
recollected  poor  John  Oxenham's  hapless  compact  made  in  like 
case. 

"  Eat  them,"  quoth  the  cacique  innocently  enough. 

Amyas  whistled. 

"Humph!"  said  Gary.  "The  old  proverb  comes  true — 
'the  more  the  merrier  :  but  the  fewer  the  better  fare.'  I  think 
we  will  do  without  our  red  friends  for  this  time." 

Ayacanora,  who  had  been  preaching  war  like  a  very  Boadicea. 
was  much  vexed. 

"Do  you  too  want  to  dine  off  roast  Spaniards'?"  asked 
Amyas. 

She  shook  her  head,  and  denied  the  imputation  with  much 
disgust. 

Amyas  was  relieved ;  he  had  shrunk  from  joining  the 
thought  of  so  fair  a  creature,  however  degraded,  with  the 
horrors  of  cannibalism. 

But  the  cacique  was  a  man  of  business,  and  held  out 
staunchly. 


432  ll»iw  -I'lIEY  TOOK  [,  ,i\r.  xxv. 

"I»  it  fair?"  he  asked.  "The  white  man  loves  gold,  ami 
he  gets  it.  The  poor  Indian,  what  use  is  gold  to  him  ?  He 
only  wants  something  to  eat,  and  he  must  eat  his  enemii •-«. 
What  fist-  will  jiay  him  for  going  so  far  through  the  !'• 
hungry  ami  thirsty?  You  will  get  all,  and  the  Omaguas  uill 
get  nothing." 

The  argument  was  unanswerable;  and  the  next  day  tln-y 
started  without  the  Indians,  while  John  Brimblecombe  heaved 
many  an  honest  sigh  at  leaving  them  to  darkness,  the  devil,  ami 
the  holy  tnimpet. 

And  Ayacanora  ? 

When  their  departure  was  determined,  she  shut  herself  up 
in  her  hut,  and  appeared  no  more.  Great  was  the  weeping, 
howling,  and  leave-taking  on  the  part  of  the  simple  Indians,  and 
loud  the  entreaties  to  come  again,  bring  them  a  message  from 
Amalivaca's  daughter  beyond  the  seas,  and  help  them  to  recover 
their  lost  land  of  Papamene ;  but  Ayacanora  took  no  part  in 
them ;  and  Amyas  left  her,  wondering  at  her  absence,  but 
joyful  and  light-hearted  at  having  escaped  the  rocks  of  the 
Sirens,  and  being  at  work  once  more. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

HOW   THEY   TOOK   THE   GOLD-TRAIN. 

"  God  will  relent,  aud  quit  thee  all  thy  debt, 
Who  ever  more  approves,  and  more  accepts 
Him  who  imploring  mercy  sues  for  life, 
Than  who  self-rigorous  chooses  death  as  due, 
Which  argues  over-just,  and  self-displeased 
For  self-offence,  more  than  for  God  offended." 

Samson  Agonistes. 

A  FORTNIGHT  or  more  has  passed  in  severe  toil ;  but  not  more 
severe  than  they  have  endured  many  a  time  before.  Bidding 
farewell  once  and  for  ever  to  the  green  ocean  of  the  eastern 
plains,  they  have  crossed  the  Cordillera;  they  have  taken  a 
longing  glance  at  the  city  of  Santa  Fe',  lying  in  the  midst  of 
rich  gardens  on  its  lofty  mountain  plateau,  and  have  seen,  as 
was  to  be  expected,  that  it  was  far  too  large  a  place  for  any 
attempt  of  theirs.  But  they  have  not  altogether  thrown  away 
their  time.  Their  Indian  lad  has  discovered  that  a  gold-train  is 
going  down  from  Santa  Fe'  toward  the  Magdalena ;  and  they 
are  waiting  for  it  beside  the  miserable  rut  which  serves  for  a 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  433 

road,  encamped  in  a  forest  of  oaks  which  would  make  them 
almost  fancy  themselves  back  again  in  Europe,  were  it  not  for 
the  tree-ferns  which  form  the  under-growth ;  and  were  it  not, 
too,  for  the  deep  gorges  opening  at  their  very  feet ;  in  which, 
while  their  brows  are  swept  by  the  cool  breezes  of  a  temperate 
zone,  they  can  see  far  below,  dim  through  their  everlasting 
vapour-bath  of  rank  hot  steam,  the  mighty  forms  and  gorgeous 
colours  of  the  tropic  forest. 

They  have  pitched  their  camp  among  the  tree-ferns,  above  a 
spot  where  the  path  winds  along  a  steep  hill-side,  with  a  sheer 
cliff  below  of  many  a  hundred  feet.  There  was  a  road  there 
once,  perhaps,  when  Cundinamarca  was  a  civilised  and  culti- 
vated kingdom ;  but  all  which  Spanish  misrule  has  left  of  it  are 
a  few  steps  slipping  from  their  places  at  the  bottom  of  a  narrow 
ditch  of  mud.  It  has  gone  the  way  of  the  aqueducts,  and 
bridges,  and  post-houses,  the  gardens  and  the  llama-flocks  of 
that  strange  empire.  In  the  mad  search  for  gold,  every  art  of 
civilisation  has  fallen  to  decay,  save  architecture  alone ;  and  that 
survives  only  in  the  splendid  cathedrals  which  have  risen  upon 
the  ruins  of  the  temples  of  the  Sun,  in  honour  of  a  milder 
Pantheon;  if,  indeed,  that  can  be  called  a  milder  one  which 
demands  (as  we  have  seen  already)  human  sacrifices,  unknown 
to  the  gentle  nature- worship  of  the  Incas. 

And  now,  the  rapid  tropic  vegetation  has  reclaimed  its  old 
domains,  and  Amyas  and  his  crew  are  as  utterly  alone,  within  a 
few  miles  of  an  important  Spanish  settlement,  as  they  would  be 
in  the  solitudes  of  the  Orinoco  or  the  Amazon. 

In  the  meanwhile,  all  their  attempts  to  find  sulphur  and 
nitre  have  been  unavailing ;  and  they  have  been  forced  to 
depend  after  all  (much  to  Yeo's  disgust)  upon  their  swords 
and  arrows.  Be  it  so  :  Drake  took  Nombre  de  Dios  and  the 
gold-train  there  with  no  better  weapons ;  and  they  may  do  as 
much. 

So,  having  blocked  up  the  road  above  by  felling  a  large  tree 
across  it,  they  sit  there  among  the  flowers  chewing  coca,  in 
default  of  food  and  drink,  and  meditating  among  themselves 
the  cause  of  a  mysterious  roar,  which  has  been  heard  nightly  in 
their  wake  ever  since  they  left  the  banks  of  the  Meta.  Jaguar 
it  is  not,  nor  monkey :  it  is  unlike  any  sound  they  know ;  and 
why  should  it  follow  them  ?  However,  they  are  in  the  land  of 
wonders ;  and,  moreover,  the  gold-train  is  far  more  important 
than  any  noise. 

At  last,  up  from  beneath  there  was  a  sharp  crack  and  a 

2F 


434  Hu\v  THEY  TOOK  [.-IIAI-.  xxv. 

loin!  cry.  The  crack  was  neither  the  snapping  of  a  branch,  IHT 
the  tapping  of  n  woodpecker ;  the  cry  was  neither  the  scream  of 
the  parrot,  nor  tin-  h<>wl  of  the  monkey, — 

"  That  was  a  whip's  crack,"  said  Yeo,  "  and  a  woman's  wail. 
They  are  close  here,  lads  !" 

"A  woman's]  Do  they  drive  women  in  their  gangs  1" 
asked  Aniyas. 

"  Why  not,  the  brutes'?  There  they  are,  sir.  Did  you  see 
their  basnets  glitter  V 

"  Men  !"  said  Amyas  in  a  low  voice,  "  I  trust  you  all  not  t<> 
shoot  till  I  do.  Then  give  them  one  arrow,  out  swords,  ami  at 
them  !  Pass  the  word  along." 

Up  they  came,  slowly,  and  all  hearts  beat  loud  at  their 
coming. 

First,  about  twenty  soldiers,  only  one-half  of  whom  were  on 
foot;  the  other  half  being  borne,  incredible  as  it  may  serin, 
each  in  a  chair  on  the  back  of  a  single  Indian,  while  those  who 
marched  had  consigned  their  heaviest  armour  and  their  arque- 
buses into  the  hands  of  attendant  slaves,  who  were  each  pricked 
on  at  will  by  the  pike  of  the  soldier  behind  them. 

"  The  men  are  mad  to  let  their  ordnance  out  of  their 
hands." 

"  Oh,  sir,  an  Indian  will  pray  to  an  arquebus  not  to  shoot 
him ;  be  sure  their  artillery  is  safe  enough,"  said  Yeo. 

"  Look  at  the  proud  villains,"  whispered  another,  "  to  make 
dumb  beasts  of  human  creatures  like  that ! " 

"Ten  shot,"  counted  the  business-like  Amyas,  "and  \m 
pikes ;  Will  can  tackle  them  up  above." 

Last  of  this  troop  came  some  inferior  officer,  also  in  his 
chair,  who,  as  he  went  slowly  up  the  hill,  with  his  face  turned 
toward  the  gang  which  followed,  drew  every  other  second  the 
cigar  from  his  lips,  to  inspirit  them  with  those  pious  ejaculations 
to  the  various  objects  of  his  worship,  divine,  human,  anatomie, 
wooden  and  textile,  which  earned  for  the  pious  Spaniards  of  the 
sixteenth  century  the  uncharitable  imputation  of  being  at  once 
the  most  fetiche-ridden  idolaters,  and  the  most  abominable 
swearers  of  all  Europeans. 

"The  blasphemous  dog !"  said  Yeo,  fumbling  at  his  bow- 
string, as  if  he  longed  to  send  an  arrow  through  him.  But 
Amyas  had  hardly  laid  his  finger  on  the  impatient  veteran's 
arm,  when  another  procession  followed,  which  made  them  forget 
all  else. 

A  sad  and  hideous  sight  it  was  :  yet  one  too  common  even 


CHAP,  xxv.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  435 

then  in  those  remoter  districts,  where  the  humane  edicts  were  dis- 
regarded, which  the  prayers  of  Dominican  friars  (to  their  ever- 
lasting honour  be  it  spoken)  had  wrung  from  the  Spanish  sove- 
reigns ;  and  which  the  legislation  of  that  most  wise,  virtuous, 
and  heroic  Inquisitor  (paradoxical  as  the  words  may  seem), 
Pedro  de  la  Gasca,  had  carried  into  effect  in  Peru, — futile  and 
tardy  alleviations  of  cruelties  and  miseries  unexampled  in  the 
history  of  Christendom,  or  perhaps  on  earth,  save  in  the  con- 
quests of  Sennacherib  and  Zinghis-Khan.  But  on  the  frontiers, 
where  negroes  were  imported  to  endure  the  toil  which  was  found 
fatal  to  the  Indian,  and  all  Indian  tribes  convicted  (or  suspected) 
of  cannibalism  were  hunted  down  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls 
and  the  enslavement  of  their  bodies,  such  scenes  as  these  were 
still  too  common ;  and,  indeed,  if  we  are  to  judge  from  Hum- 
boldt's  impartial  account,  were  not  very  much  amended  even  at 
the  close  of  the  last  century,  in  those  much -boasted  Jesuit 
missions  in  which  (as  many  of  them  as  existed  anywhere  but  on 
paper)  military  tyranny  was  superadded  to  monastic,  and  the 
Gospel  preached  with  fire  and  sword,  almost  as  shamelessly  as 
by  the  first  Conquistadores. 

A  line  of  Indians,  Negroes,  and  Zambos,  naked,  emaciated, 
scarred  with  whips  and  fetters,  and  chained  together  by  their 
left  wrists,  toiled  upwards,  panting  and  perspiring  under  the 
burden  of  a  basket  held  up  by  a  strap  which  passed  across  their 
foreheads.  Yeo's  sneer  was  but  too  just ;  there  were  not  only 
old  men  and  youths  among  them,  but  women ;  slender  young 
girls,  mothers  with  children  running  at  their  knee ;  and,  at  the 
sight,  a  low  murmur  of  indignation  rose  from  the  ambushed 
Englishmen,  worthy  of  the  free  and  righteous  hearts  of  those 
days,  when  Raleigh  could  appeal  to  man  and  God,  on  the  ground 
of  a  common  humanity,  in  behalf  of  the  outraged  heathens  of 
the  New  World ;  when  Englishmen  still  knew  that  man  was 
man,  and  that  the  instinct  of  freedom  was  the  righteous  voice 
of  God;  ere  the  hapless  seventeenth  century  had  brutalised  them 
also,  by  bestowing  on  them,  amid  a  hundred  other  bad  legacies, 
the  fatal  gift  of  negro-slaves. 

But  the  first  forty,  so  Amyas  counted,  bore  on  their  backs 
a  burden  which  made  all,  perhaps,  but  him  and  Yeo,  forget  even 
the  wretches  who  bore  it.  Each  basket  contained  a  square 
package  of  carefully  corded  hide;  the  look  whereof  friend  Amyas 
knew  full  well. 

"  What's  in  they,  captain  ?" 

"  Gold  !"     And  at  that  magic  word  all  eyes  were  strained 


•I.V.  Mi»\V  TIIKY  TOOK  [,  ii.vr.  xxv. 

greedily  forward,  and  such  a  rustle  followed,  that  Ainyas,  in  tin- 
very  face  of  detection,  had  to  whisper — 

"  l!i-  men,  l>c  Him,  or  you  will  spoil  all  yet !" 

The  last  twenty,  or  so,  of  the  Indians  bore  larger  baskets, 
but  more  lightly  freighted,  seemingly  with  manioc,  and  nniix. 
bread,  and  other  food  for  the  party ;  and  after  them  came,  with 
their  bearers  and  attendants,  just  twenty  x.ldiers  ni"iv.  tallowed 
by  the  officer  in  charge,  who  smiled  away  in  his  chair,  and 
twirled  two  huge  mustachios,  thinking  of  nothing  leas  than  of 
the  English  arrows  which  were  itching  to  be  away  and  through 
his  ribs.  The  ambush  was  complete;  the  only  question  how 
and  when  to  begin? 

Amyas  had  a  shrinking,  which  all  will  understand,  from 
drawing  bow  in  cool  blood  on  men  so  utterly  unsuspicious  and 
defenceless,  even  though  in  the  very  act  of  devilish  cruelty — 
for  devilish  cruelty  it  was,  as  three  or  four  drivers  armed  with 
whips,  lingered  up  and  down  the  slowly-staggering  file  of  Indians, 
and  avenged  every  moment's  lagging,  even  every  stumble,  by 
a  blow  of  the  cruel  manati-hide,  which  cracked  like  a  pistol- 
shot  against  the  naked  limbs  of  the  silent  and  uncomplaining 
victim. 

Suddenly  the  casus  belli,  as  usually  happens,  arose  of  its 
own  accord. 

The  last  but  one  of  the  chained  line  was  an  old  grey-headed 
man,  followed  by  a  slender  graceful  girl  of  some  eighteen  years 
old,  and  Amyas's  heart  yearned  over  them  as  they  came  up. 
Just  as  they  passed,  the  foremost  of  the  file  had  rounded  the 
corner  above  ;  there  was  a  bustle,  and  a  voice  shouted,  "  Halt, 
Sefiors  !  there  is  a  tree  across  the  path  ! " 

"A  tree  across  the  path?"  bellowed  the  officer,  with  a 
variety  of  passionate  addresses  to  the  Mother  of  Heaven,  the 
fiends  of  hell,  Saint  Jago  of  Compostella,  and  various  other 
personages ;  while  the  line  of  trembling  Indians,  told  to  halt 
above,  and  driven  on  by  blows  below,  surged  up  and  down  upon 
the  ruinous  steps  of  the  Indian  road,  until  the  poor  old  man  fell 
grovelling  on  his  face. 

The  officer  leaped  down,  and  hurried  upward  to  see  what  had 
happened.  Of  course,  he  came  across  the  old  man. 

"  Sin  peccado  concebida!  Grandfather  of  Beelzebub,  is  this 
a  place  to  lie  worshipping  your  fiends?"  and  he  pricked  the 
prostrate  wretch  with  the  point  of  his  sword. 

The  old  man  tried  to  rise  :  but  the  weight  on  his  head  was 
too  much  for  him;  he  fell  again,  and  lay  motionless. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  437 

The  driver  applied  the  manati-hide  across  his  loins,  once, 
twice,  with  fearful  force ;  but  even  that  specific  was  useless. 

"  Gastado,  Sefior  Capitan,"  said  he,  with  a  shrug.  "  Used 
up.  He  has  been  failing  these  three  months  ! " 

"  What  does  the  intendant  mean  by  sending  me  out  with 
worn-out  cattle  like  these?  Forward  there!"  shouted  he. 
"  Clear  away  the  tree,  Senors,  and  I'll  soon  clear  the  chain. 
Hold  it  up,  Pedrillo  !" 

The  driver  held  up  the  chain,  which  was  fastened  to  the  old 
man's  wrist.  The  officer  stepped  back,  and  flourished  round  his 
head  a  Toledo  blade,  whose  beauty  made  Amyas  break  the  Tenth 
Commandment  on  the  spot. 

The  man  was  a  tall,  handsome,  broad-shouldered,  high-bred 
man ;  and  Amyas  thought  that  he  was  going  to  display  the 
strength  of  his  arm,  and  the  temper  of  his  blade,  in  severing  the 
chain  at  one  stroke. 

Even  he  was  not  prepared  for  the  recondite  fancies  of  a 
Spanish  adventurer,  worthy  son  or  nephew  of  those  first  con- 
querors, who  used  to  try  the  keenness  of  their  swords  upon  the 
living  bodies  of  Indians,  and  regale  themselves  at  meals  with 
the  odour  of  roasting  caciques. 

The  blade  gleamed  in  the  air,  once,  twice,  and  fell :  not  on 
the  chain,  but  on  the  wrist  which  it  fettered.  There  was  a 
shriek — a  crimson  flash — and  the  chain  and  its  prisoner  were 
parted  indeed. 

One  moment  more,  and  Amyas's  arrow  would  have  been 
through  the  throat  of  the  murderer,  who  paused,  regarding  his 
workmanship  with  a  satisfied  smile ;  but  vengeance  was  not  to 
come  from  him. 

Quick  and  fierce  as  a  tiger-cat,  the  girl  sprang  on  the  ruffian, 
and  with  the  intense  strength  of  passion,  clasped  him  in  her 
arms,  and  leaped  with  him  from  the  narrow  ledge  into  the  abyss 
below. 

There  was  a  rush,  a  shout;  all  faces  were  bent  over  the 
precipice.  The  girl  hung  by  her  chained  wrist :  the  officer  was 
gone.  There  was  a  moment's  awful  silence  ;  and  then  Amyas 
heard  his  body  crashing  through  the  tree-tops  far  below. 

"Haul  her  up!  Hew  her  in  pieces!  Burn  the  witch!" 
and  the  driver,  seizing  the  chain,  pulled  at  it  with  all  his  might, 
while  all  springing  from  their  chairs,  stooped  over  the  brink. 

Now  was  the  time  for  Amyas !  Heaven  had  delivered 
them  into  his  hands.  Swift  and  sure,  at  ten  yards  off,  his 
arrow  rushed  through  the  body  of  the  driver,  and  then,  with  a 


438  HOW  TIM: v  TOOK  [.  n  u-.xxv. 

roar  as  of  the  leaping  lion,  he  sprang  like  an  avenging  angel  into 
the  midst  of  the  astonished  ruffians. 

Hi-  first  thought  was  for  the  girl.  In  a  moment,  by  sheer 
strength,  he  had  jerked  her  safely  up  into  the  road;  while  the 
Spaniards  recoiled  right  and  left,  fancying  him  for  the  moment 
some  mountain  giant  or  supernatural  foe.  His  hurrah  undeceived 
them  in  an  instant,  and  a  cry  of  "English  !  Lutheran  dogs  !" 
arose,  but  arose  too  late.  The  men  of  Devon  had  followed  their 
captain's  load :  a  storm  of  arrows  left  five  Spaniards  dead,  and 
a  dozen  more  wounded,  and  down  leapt  Salvation  Yeo,  his  white 
hair  streaming  behind  him,  with  twenty  good  swords  more,  and 
the  work  of  death  began. 

The  Spaniards  fought  like  lions ;  but  they  had  no  time  to 
fix  their  arquebuses  on  the  crutches ;  no  room,  in  that  narrow 
path,  to  use  their  pikes.  The  English  had  the  wall  of  them  ; 
and  to  have  the  wall  there,  was  to  have  the  foe's  life  at  their 
mercy.  Five  desperate  minutes,  and  not  a  living  Spaniard  stood 
upon  those  steps ;  and  certainly  no  living  one  lay  in  the  green 
abyss  below.  Two  only,  who  were  behind  the  rest,  happening 
to  be  in  full  armour,  escaped  without  mortal  wound,  and  fled 
down  the  hill  again. 

"  After  them  !  Michael  Evans  and  Simon  Heard ;  and  catch 
them,  if  they  run  a  league." 

The  two  long  and  lean  Clovelly  men,  active  as  deer  from 
forest  training,  ran  two  feet  for  the  Spaniard's  one ;  and  in  ten 
minutes  returned,  having  done  their  work ;  while  Amyas  and 
his  men  hurried  past  the  Indians,  to  help  Gary  and  the  party 
forward,  where  shouts  and  musket  shots  announced  a  sharp 
affray. 

Their  arrival  settled  the  matter.  All  the  Spaniards  fell  but 
three  or  four,  who  scrambled  down  the  crannies  of  the  cliff. 

"  Let  not  one  of  them  escape  !  Slay  them  as  Israel  slew 
Amalek  ! "  cried  Yeo,  as  he  bent  over ;  and  ere  the  wretches 
could  reach  a  place  of  shelter,  an  arrow  was  quivering  in  each 
body,  as  it  rolled  lifeless  down  the  rocks. 

"  Now  then  !     Loose  the  Indians  !" 

They  found  armourers'  tools  on  one  of  the  dead  bodies,  and 
it  was  done. 

"  We  are  your  friends,"  said  Amyas.  "  All  we  ask  is,  that 
you  shall  help  us  to  carry  this  gold  down  to  the  Magdalena,  ami 
then  you  are  free." 

Some  few  of  the  younger  grovelled  at  his  knees,  and  kissed 
his  feet,  hailing  him  as  the  child  of  the  Sun :  but  the  most  part 


'CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  439 

kept  a  stolid  indifference,  and  when  freed  from  their  fetters,  sat 
quietly  down  where  they  stood,  staring  into  vacancy.  The  iron 
had  entered  too  deeply  into  their  soul.  They  seemed  past  hope, 
enjoyment,  even  understanding. 

But  the  young  girl,  who  was  last  of  all  in  the  line,  as  soon 
as  she  was  loosed,  sprang  to  her  father's  body,  speaking  no  word, 
lifted  it  in  her  thin  arms,  laid  it  across  her  knees,  kissed  the 
fallen  lips,  stroked  the  furrowed  cheeks,  murmured  inarticulate 
sounds  like  the  cooing  of  a  woodland  dove,  of  which  none  knew 
the  meaning  but  she,  and  he  who  heard  not,  for  his  soul  had 
long  since  fled.  Suddenly  the  truth  flashed  on  her ;  silent  as 
ever,  she  drew  one  long  heaving  breath,  and  rose  erect,  the  body 
in  her  arms. 

Another  moment,  and  she  had  leaped  into  the  abyss. 

They  watched  her  dark  and  slender  limbs,  twined  closely 
round  the  old  man's  corpse,  turn  over,  and  over,  and  over,  till  a 
crash  among  the  leaves,  and  a  scream  among  the  birds,  told  that 
she  had  reached  the  trees ;  and  the  green  roof  hid  her  from  their 
view. 

"  Brave  lass  !"  shouted  a  sailor. 

"  The  Lord  forgive  her  !"  said  Yeo.  "  But,  your  worship, 
we  must  have  these  rascals'  ordnance." 

"  And  their  clothes  too,  Yeo,  if  we  wish  to  get  down  the 
Magdalena  unchallenged.  Now  listen,  my  masters  all !  We 
have  won,  by  God's  good  grace,  gold  enough  to  serve  us  the  rest 
of  our  lives,  and  that  without  losing  a  single  man ;  and  may  yet 
win  more,  if  we  be  wise,  and  He  thinks  good.  But  oh,  my 
friends,  remember  Mr.  Oxenham  and  his  crew;  and  do  not  make 
God's  gift  our  ruin,  by  faithlessness,  or  greediness,  or  any  mutin- 
ous haste." 

"You  shall  find  none  in  us!"  cried  several  men.  "We 
know  your  worship.  We  can  trust  our  general." 

"Thank  God!"  said  Amyas.  "Now  then,  it  will  be  no 
shame  or  sin  to  make  the  Indians  carry  it,  saving  the  women, 
whom  God  forbid  we  should  burden.  But  we  must  pass  through 
the  very  heart  of  the  Spanish  settlements,  and  by  the  town  of 
Saint  Martha  itself.  So  the  clothes  and  weapons  of  these 
Spaniards  we  must  have,  let  it  cost  us  what  labour  it  may. 
How  many  lie  in  the  road  1" 

"  Thirteen  here,  and  about  ten  up  above,"  said  Gary. 

"  Then  there  are  near  twenty  missing.  Who  will  volunteer 
to  go  down  over  cliff,  and  bring  up  the  spoil  of  them  ?" 

"I,  and  I,  and  I ;"  and  a  dozen  stepped  out,  as  they  did 


440  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [nur.  XXV. 

always  when  Amyas  wanted  anything  done ;  for  the  simple  reason, 
that  they  knew  that  In-  meant  to  help  at  the  doing  of  it  himself. 

"Very  well,  then,  follow  me.     Sir  John,  take  the  Indian 
lad  for  your  interpreter,  and  try  and  comfort  the  souls  of  t  i 
poor  heathens.     Tell  them  that  they  shall  all  be  free." 

"  Why,  who  is  that  comes  up  the  road  1" 

All  eyes  were  turned  in  the  direction  of  which  he  spoke. 
And,  wonder  of  wonders  !  up  came  none  other  than  Ayacanora 
herself,  blow-gun  in  hand,  bow  on  back,  and  bedecked  in  all  her 
feather  garments,  which  last  were  rather  the  worse  for  a  fnrt 
night's  woodland  travel 

All  stood  mute  with  astonishment,  as,  seeing  Amyas,  she 
uttered  a  cry  of  joy,  quickened  her  pace  into  a  run,  and  at  last 
fell  panting  and  exhausted  at  his  feet. 

"I  have  found  you!"  she  said;  "you  ran  away  from  me, 
but  you  could  not  escape  me  !"  And  she  fawned  round  Amyas, 
like  a  dog  who  has  found  his  master,  and  then  sat  down  on  the 
bank,  and  burst  into  wild  sobs. 

"  God  help  us  !"  said  Amyas,  clutching  his  hair,  as  he  looked 
down  upon  the  beautiful  weeper.  "  What  am  I  to  do  with  her, 
over  and  above  all  these  poor  heathens?" 

But  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  and  over  the  cliff  he 
scrambled ;  while  the  girl,  seeing  that  the  main  body  of  the 
English  remained,  sat  down  on  a  point  of  rock  to  watch  him. 

After  half-an-hour's  hard  work,  the  weapons,  clothes,  and 
armour  of  the  fallen  Spaniards  were  hauled  up.  the  cliff,  and  dis- 
tributed in  bundles  among  the  men ;  the  rest  of  the  corpses 
were  thrown  over  the  precipice,  and  they  started  again  upon 
their  road  toward  the  Magdalena,  while  Yeo  snorted  like  a 
war-horse  who  smells  the  battle,  at  the  delight  of  once  more 
handling  powder  and  ball 

"  We  can  face  the  world  now,  sir !  Why  not  go  back  and 
try  Santa  Pe",  after  all  1" 

But  Amyas  thought  that  enough  was  as  good  as  a  feast,  and 
they  held  on  downwards,  while  the  slaves  followed,  without  a 
sign  of  gratitude,  but  meekly  obedient  to  their  new  masters,  and 
testifying  now  and  then  by  a  sign  or  a  grunt,  their  surprise  at 
not  being  beaten,  or  made  to  carry  their  captors.  Some,  how- 
ever, caught  sight  of  the  little  calabashes  of  coca  which  the 
English  carried.  That  woke  them  from  their  torpor,  and  they 
began  coaxing  abjectly  (and  not  in  vain)  for  a  taste  of  that 
miraculous  herb,  which  would  not  only  make  food  unnecessary, 
and  enable  their  panting  lungs  to  endure  that  keen  mountain 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  441 

air;  but  would  rid  them,  for  awhile  at  least,  of  the  fallen 
Indian's  most  unpitying  foe,  the  malady  of  thought. 

As  the  cavalcade  turned  the  corner  of  the  mountain,  they 
paused  for  one  last  look  at  the  scene  of  that  fearful  triumph. 
Lines  of  vultures  were  already  streaming  out  of  infinite  space, 
as  if  created  suddenly  for  the  occasion.  A  few  hours  and  there 
would  be  no  trace  of  that  fierce  fray,  but  a  few  white  bones 
amid  untrodden  beds  of  flowers. 

And  now  Amyas  had  time  to  ask  Ayacanora  the  meaning 
of  this  her  strange  appearance.  He  wished  her  anywhere  but 
where  she  was :  but  now  that  she  was  here,  what  heart  could 
be  so  hard  as  not  to  take  pity  on  the  poor  wild  thing  1  And 
Amyas  as  he  spoke  to  her  had,  perhaps,  a  tenderness  in  his 
tone,  from  very  fear  of  hurting  her,  which  he  had  never  used 
before.  Passionately  she  told  him  how  she  had  followed  on 
their  track  day  and  night,  and  had  every  evening  made  sounds, 
as  loud  as  she  dared,  in  hopes  of  their  hearing  her,  and  either 
waiting  for  her,  or  coming  back  to  see  what  caused  the  noise. 

Amyas  now  recollected  the  strange  roaring  which  had  fol- 
lowed them. 

"  Noises  ?     What  did  you  make  them  with  V 

Ayacanora  lifted  her  finger  with  an  air  of  most  self-satisfied 
mystery;  and  then  drew  cautiously  from  under  her  feather 
cloak  an  object  at  which  Amyas  had  hard  work  to  keep  his 
countenance. 

"Look!"  whispered  she,  as  if  half  afraid  that  the  thing 
itself  should  hear  her.  "I  have  it — the  holy  trumpet !" 

There  it  was  verily,  that  mysterious  bone  of  contention ;  a 
handsome  earthen  tube  some  two  feet  long,  neatly  glazed,  and 
painted  with  quaint  grecques  and  figures  of  animals ;  a  relic 
evidently  of  some  civilisation  now  extinct. 

Brimblecombe  nibbed  his  little  fat  hands.  "  Brave  maid  ! 
you  have  cheated  Satan  this  time,"  quoth  he ;  while  Yeo  ad- 
vised that  the  "idolatrous  relic"  should  be  forthwith  "hove 
over  cliff." 

"  Let  be,"  said  Amyas.  "  What  is  the  meaning  of  this, 
Ayacanora  1  And  why  have  you  followed  us  1" 

She  told  a  long  story,  from  which  Amyas  picked  up,  as  far 
as  he  could  understand  her,  that  that  trumpet  had  been  for  years 
the  torment  of  her  life ;  the  one  thing  in  the  tribe  superior  to 
her ;  the  one  thing  which  she  was  not  allowed  to  see,  because, 
forsooth,  she  was  a  woman.  So  she  determined  to  show  them 
that  a  woman  was  as  good  as  a  man ;  and  hence  her  hatred  of 


442  1H»\V  TUKY  TOOK  i.  XXV. 

ln:irri:igp,  and  lnT  Aina/nniaii  exploits.  But  still  the  Piache 
would  not  show  her  that  trumpet,  or  tell  her  where  it  was  :  and 
as  for  going  to  seek  it,  even  she  feared  the  superstitious  wrath 
i >f  the  tribe  at  such  a  profanation.  But  the  day  after  the  Eng- 
lish went,  the  Piache  chose  to  express  his  joy  at  their  depar- 
ture ;  whereon,  as  was  to  be  expected,  a  fresh  explosion  between 
master  and  pupil,  which  ended,  she  confessed,  in  her  burning 
the  old  rogue's  hut  over  his  head,  from  which  he  escaped  with 
loss  of  all  his  conjuring-tackle,  and  fled  raging  into  the  woods, 
vowing  that  he  would  carry  off  the  trumpet  to  the  neighbouring 
tribe.  Whereon,  by  a  sudden  impulse,  the  young  lady  took 
plenty  of  coca,  her  weapons,  and  her  feathers,  started  on  his 
trail,  and  ran  him  to  earth  just  as  he  was  unveiling  the  precious 
mystery.  At  which  sight  (she  confessed)  she  was  horribly 
afraid,  and  half  inclined  to  run :  but,  gathering  courage  from 
the  thought  that  the  white  men  used  to  laugh  at  the  whole 
matter,  she  rushed  upon  the  hapless  conjuror,  and  bore  off  her 
prize  in  triumph  ;  and  there  it  was  ! 

"  I  hope  you  have  not  killed  him  ?"  said  Amyas. 

"  I  did  beat  him  a  little ;  but  I  thought  you  would  not  let 
me  kill  him." 

Amyas  was  half  amused  with  her  confession  of  his  authority 
over  her :  but  she  went  on, — 

"  And  then  I  dare  not  go  back  to  the  Indians ;  so  I  was 
forced  to  come  after  you." 

"And  is  that,  then,  your  only  reason  for  coming  after  us1?" 
asked  stupid  Amyas. 

He  had  touched  some  secret  chord — though  what  it  was  he 
was  too  busy  to  inquire.  The  girl  drew  herself  up  proudly, 
blushing  scarlet,  and  said — 

"  You  never  tell  lies.     Do  you  think  that  I  would  tell  lies  ?" 

On  which  she  fell  to  the  rear,  and  followed  them  steadfastly, 
speaking  to  no  one,  but  evidently  determined  to  follow  them  to 
the  world's  end. 

They  soon  left  the  high  road ;  and  for  several  days  held  on 
downwards,  hewing  their  path  slowly  and  painfully  through  the 
thick  underwood.  On  the  evening  of  the  fourth  day,  they  had 
reached  the  margin  of  a  river,  at  a  point  where  it  seemed  broad 
and  still  enough  for  navigation.  For  those  three  days  they  had 
not  seen  a  trace  of  human  beings,  and  the  spot  seemed  lonely 
enough  for  them  to  encamp  without  fear  of  discovery,  and  begin 
the  making  of  their  canoes.  They  began  to  spread  themselves 
along  the  stream,  in  search  of  the  soft-wooded  trees  proper  for 


CHAP,  xxv.j  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  443 

their  purpose ;  but  hardly  had  their  search  begun,  when,  in  the 
midst  of  a  dense  thicket,  they  came  upon  a  sight  which  filled 
them  with  astonishment.  Beneath  a  honeycombed  cliff,  which 
supported  one  enormous  cotton-tree,  was  a  spot  of  some  thirty 
yards  square  sloping  down  to  the  stream,  planted  in  rows  with 
magnificent  banana-plants,  full  twelve  feet  high,  and  bearing 
among  their  huge  waxy  leaves  clusters  of  ripening  fruit ;  while, 
under  their  mellow  shade,  yams  and  cassava  plants  were  flour- 
ishing luxuriantly,  the  whole  being  surrounded  by  a  hedge  of 
orange  and  scarlet  flowers.  There  it  lay,  streaked  with  long 
shadows  from  the  setting  sun,  while  a  cool  southern  air  rustled 
in  the  cotton-tree,  and  flapped  to  and  fro  the  great  banana-leaves ; 
a  tiny  paradise  of  art  and  care.  But  where  was  its  inhabitant  1 

Aroused  by  the  noise  of  their  approach,  a  figure  issued  from 
a  cave  in  the  rocks,  and,  after  gazing  at  them  for  a  moment, 
came  down  the  garden  towards  them.  He  was  a  tall  and  stately 
old  man,  whose  snow-white  beard  and  hair  covered  his  chest  and 
shoulders,  while  his  lower  limbs  were  wrapt  in  Indian -web. 
Slowly  and  solemnly  he  approached,  a  staff  in  one  hand,  a  string 
of  beads  in  the  other,  the  living  likeness  of  some  old  Hebrew 
prophet,  or  anchorite  of  ancient  legend.  He  bowed  courteously 
to  Amyas  (who  of  course  returned  his  salute),  and  was  in  act  to 
speak,  when  his  eye  fell  upon  the  Indians,  who  were  laying 
down  their  burdens  in  a  heap  under  the  trees.  His  mild  coun- 
tenance assumed  instantly  an  expression  of  the  acutest  sorrow 
and  displeasure ;  and,  striking  his  hands  together,  he  spoke  in 
Spanish — - 

"  Alas  !  miserable  me  !  Alas  !  unhappy  Sefiors  !  Do  my 
old  eyes  deceive  me,  and  is  it  one  of  those  evil  visions  of  the 
past  which  haunt  my  dreams  by  night :  or  has  the  accursed 
thirst  of  gold,  the  ruin  of  my  race,  penetrated  even  into  this  my 
solitude  ?  Oh,  Sefiors,  Sefiors,  know  you  not  that  you  bear  with 
you  your  own  poison,  your  own  familiar  fiend,  the  root  of  every 
evil  1  And  is  it  not  enough  for  you,  Sefiors,  to  load  yourselves 
with  the  wedge  of  Achan,  and  partake  his  doom,  but  you  must 
make  these  hapless  heathens  the  victims  of  your  greed  and 
cruelty,  and  forestall  for  them  on  earth  those  torments  which 
may  await  their  unbaptized  souls  hereafter  1" 

"We  have  preserved,  and  not  enslaved  these  Indians,  ancient 
Sefior,"  said  Amyas  proudly ;  "  and  to-morrow  will  see  them  as 
free  as  the  birds  over  our  heads." 

"  Free  1  Then  you  cannot  be  countrymen  of  mine  !  But 
pardon  an  old  man,  my  son,  if  he  has  spoken  too  hastily  in  the 


444  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  XXV. 

bitterness  of  his  own  experience.  But  who  and  whence  are  you  ? 
Ami  why  are  you  bringing  into  this  lonely  wilderness  that  gold 
— for  I  know  too  well  the  shape  of  those  accursed  packets, 
which  would  God  that  I  had  never  seen  !" 

"What  we  are,  reverend  sir,  matters  little,  as  long  as  we 
behave  to  you  as  the  young  should  to  the  old.  As  for  our  gold, 
it  will  be  a  curse  or  a  blessing  to  us,  I  conceive,  just  as  we  use 
it  well  or  ill ;  and  so  is  a  man's  head,  or  his  hand,  or  any  other 
thing ;  but  that  is  no  reason  for  cutting  off  his  limbs  for  fear  of 
doing  harm  with  them ;  neither  is  it  for  throwing  away  those 
packages,  which,  by  your  leave,  we  shall  deposit  in  one  of  these 
caves.  We  must  be  your  neighbours,  I  fear,  for  a  day  or  two  ; 
but  I  can  promise  you,  that  your  garden  shall  be  respected,  on 
condition  that  you  do  not  inform  any  human  soul  of  our  being 
here." 

"  God  forbid,  Sefior,  that  I  should  try  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  my  visitors,  much  less  to  bring  hither  strife  and  blood,  of 
which  I  have  seen  too  much  already.  As  you  have  come  in 
peace,  in  peace  depart.  Leave  me  alone  with  God  and  my 
penitence,  and  may  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  you !" 

And  he  was  about  to  withdraw,  when,  recollecting  himself, 
he  turned  suddenly  to  Amyas  again — 

"  Pardon  me,  Sefior,  if,  after  forty  years  of  utter  solitude,  I 
shrink  at  first  from  the  conversation  of  human  beings,  and  forget, 
in  the  habitual  shyness  of  a  recluse,  the  duties  of  a  hospitable 
gentleman  of  Spain.  My  garden,  and  all  which  it  produces,  is 
at  your  service.  Only  let  me  entreat  that  these  poor  Indians 
shall  have  their  share ;  for  heathens  though  they  be,  Christ  died 
for  them ;  and  I  cannot  but  cherish  in  my  soul  some  secret  hope 
that  He  did  not  die  in  vain." 

"God  forbid!"  said  Brimblecombe.  "They  are  no  worse 
than  we,  for  aught  I  see,  whatsoever  their  fathers  may  have 
been ;  and  they  have  fared  no  worse  than  we  since  they  have 
been  with  us,  nor  will,  I  promise  you." 

The  good  fellow  did  not  tell  that  he  had  been  starving 
himself  for  the  last  three  days  to  cram  the  children  with  his 
own  rations ;  and  that  the  sailors,  and  even  Amyas,  had  been 
going  out  of  their  way  every  five  minutes,  to  get  fruit  for  their 
new  pets. 

A  camp  was  soon  formed ;  and  that  evening  the  old  hermit 
asked  Amyas,  Gary,  and  Brimblecombe  to  come  up  into  his 
cavern. 

They  went;    and  after  the  accustomed  compliments  had 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  445 

passed,  sat  down  on  mats  upon  the  ground,  while  the  old  man 
stood,  leaning  against  a  slab  of  stone  surmounted  by  a  rude 
wooden  cross,  which  evidently  served  him  as  a  place  of  prayer. 
He  seemed  restless  and  anxious,  as  if  he  waited  for  them  to 
begin  the  conversation ;  while  they,  in  their  turn,  waited  for 
him.  At  last,  when  courtesy  would  not  allow  him  to  be  silent 
any  longer,  he  began  with  a  faltering  voice, — 

"  You  may  be  equally  surprised,  Sefiors,  at  my  presence  in 
such  a  spot,  and  at  my  asking  you  to  become  my  guests  even 
for  one  evening,  while  I  have  no  better  hospitality  to  offer  you." 

"  It  is  superfluous,  Sefior,  to  offer  us  food  in  your  own  habit- 
ation when  you  have  already  put  all  that  you  possess  at  our 
command." 

"  True,  Sefiors  :  and  my  motive  for  inviting  you  was,  per- 
haps, somewhat  of  a  selfish  one.  I  am  possessed  by  a  longing 
to  unburthen  my  heart  of  a  tale  which  I  never  yet  told  to  man ; 
and  which  I  fear  can  give  to  you  nothing  but  pain  :  and  yet  I 
will  entreat  you,  of  your  courtesy,  to  hear  of  that  which  you 
cannot  amend,  simply  in  mercy  to  a  man  who  feels  that  he  must 
confess  to  some  one,  or  die  as  miserable  as  he  has  lived.  And 
I  believe  my  confidence  will  not  be  misplaced,  when  it  is  be- 
stowed upon  you.  I  have  been  a  cavalier,  even  as  you  are ; 
and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  that  which  I  have  to  tell  I  would 
sooner  impart  to  the  ears  of  a  soldier  than  of  a  priest ;  because 
it  will  then  sink  into  souls  which  can  at  least  sympathise, 
though  they  cannot  absolve.  And  you,  cavaliers,  I  perceive  to 
be  noble,  from  your  very  looks;  to  be  valiant,  by  your  mere 
presence  in  this  hostile  land ;  and  to  be  gentle,  courteous,  and 
prudent,  by  your  conduct  this  day  to  me  and  to  your  captives. 
Will  you,  then,  hear  an  old  man's  tale  ?  I  am,  as  you  see,  full 
of  words ;  for  speech,  from  long  disuse,  is  difficult  to  me,  and  I 
fear  at  every  sentence  lest  my  stiffened  tongue  should  play  the 
traitor  to  my  worn-out  brain  :  but  if  my  request  seems  imper- 
tinent, you  have  only  to  bid  me  talk  as  a  host  should,  of  matters 
which  concern  his  guests,  and  not  himself." 

The  three  young  men,  equally  surprised  and  interested  by 
this  exordium,  could  only  entreat  their  host  to  "  use  their  ears 
as  those  of  his  slaves,"  on  which,  after  fresh  apologies,  he 
began — 

"  Know,  then,  victorious  cavaliers,  that  I,  whom  you  now 
see  here  as  a  poor  hermit,  was  formerly  one  of  the  foremost  of 
that  terrible  band  who  went  with  Pizarro  to  the  conquest  of 
Peru.  Eighty  years  old  am  I  this  day,  unless  the  calendar 


446  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [,  u AI-.  xxv. 

which  I  liavc  carved  upon  yonder  tree  deceives  me;  and  twenty 
years  old  was  I  when  I  sailed  with  that  fierce  man  ln>m 
Panama,  t<»  d->  tliat  dr.-d  with  whi«-li  all  earth,  and  heaven,  and 
hell  itself,  I  fear,  lias  rung.  How  we  endured,  Buffered,  and 
triumphed ;  how,  mad  with  success,  and  glutted  with  blood,  we 
turned  our  swords  against  each  other,  I  need  not  tell  to  you. 
For  what  gentleman  of  Europe  knows  not  our  glory  and  our 
shame  t" 

His  hearers  bowed  assent. 

"  Yes ;  you  have  heard  of  our  prowess :  for  glorious  we 
were  awhile,  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man.  But  I  will  nut 
speak  of  our  glory,  for  it  is  tarnished;  nor  of  our  wealth,  for  it 
was  our  poison ;  nor  of  the  sins  of  my  comrades,  for  they  have 
expiated  them ;  but  of  my  own  sins,  Sefiors,  which  are  more  in 
number  than  the  hairs  of  my  head,  and  a  burden  too  great  to 
bear.  Miserere  Domine ! " 

And  smiting  on  his  breast,  the  old  warrior  went  on — 

"  As  I  said,  we  were  mad  with  blood ;  and  none  more  mad 
than  I.  Surely  it  is  no  fable  that  men  are  possessed,  even  in 
this  latter  age,  by  devils.  Why  else  did  I  rejoice  in  slaying  1 
Why  else  was  I,  the  son  of  a  noble  and  truthful  cavalier  of 
Castile,  among  the  foremost  to  urge  upon  my  general  the  murder 
of  the  Inca  1  Why  did  I  rejoice  over  his  dying  agonies  ?  Why, 
when  Don  Ferdinando  de  Soto  returned,  and  upbraided  us  with 
our  villany,  did  I,  instead  of  confessing  the  sin  which  that 
noble  cavalier  set  before  us,  withstand  him  to  his  face,  ay,  and 
would  have  drawn  the  sword  on  him,  but  that  he  refused  to 
fight  a  liar,  as  he  said  that  I  was  ?" 

"  Then  Don  de  Soto  was  against  the  murder  ?  So  his  own 
grandson  told  me.  But  I  had  heard  of  him  only  as  a  tyrant 
and  a  butcher." 

"Sefior,  he  was  compact  of  good  and  evil,  as  are  other 
men :  he  has  paid  dearly  for  his  sin ;  let  us  hope  that  he  has 
been  paid  in  turn  for  his  righteousness." 

John  Brimblecombe  shook  his  head  at  this  doctrine,  but  did 
not  speak. 

"So  you  know  his  grandson]  I  trust  he  is  a  noble 
cavalier1?" 

Amyas  was  silent;  the  old  gentleman  saw  that  he  had 
touched  some  sore  point,  and  continued — 

"  And  why,  again,  Sefiors,  did  I  after  that  day  give  myself 
up  to  cruelty  as  to  a  sport ;  yea,  thought  that  I  did  God  service 
by  destroying  the  creatures  whom  He  had  made ;  I  who  now 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  447 

dare  not  destroy  a  gnat,  lest  I  harm  a  being  more  righteous  than 
myself  1  Was  I  mad  1  If  I  was,  how  then  was  I  all  that  while 
as  prudent  as  I  am  this  day  %  But  I  am  not  here  to  argue, 
Sefiors,  but  to  confess.  In  a  word,  there  was  no  deed  of  blood 
done  for  the  next  few  years  in  which  I  had  not  my  share,  if  it 
were  but  within  my  reach.  When  Challcuchima  was  burned, 
I  was  consenting ;  when  that  fair  girl,  the  wife  of  Inca  Manco, 
was  tortured  to  death,  I  smiled  at  the  agonies  at  which  she  too 
smiled,  and  taunted  on  the  soldiers,  to  try  if  I  could  wring  one 
groan  from  her  before  she  died.  You  know  what  followed,  the 
pillage,  the  violence,  the  indignities  offered  to  the  virgins  of  the 
Sun.  Sefiors,  I  will  not  pollute  your  chaste  ears  with  what  was 
done.  But,  Sefiors,  I  had  a  brother." 

And  the  old  man  paused  awhile. 

"  A  brother — whether  better  or  worse  than  me,  God  knows, 
before  whom  he  has  appeared  ere  now.  At  least  he  did  not,  as 
I  did,  end  as  a  rebel  to  his  king  !  There  was  a  maiden  in  one 
of  those  convents,  Sefiors,  more  beautiful  than  day :  and  (I 
blush  to  tell  it)  the  two  brothers  of  whom  I  spoke  quarrelled 
for  the  possession  of  her.  They  struck  each  other,  Sefiors ! 
Who  struck  first  I  know  not;  but  swords  were  drawn,  and 
- — .  The  cavaliers  round  parted  them,  crying  shame.  And 
one  of  those  two  brothers — the  one  who  speaks  to  you  now — 
crying,  '  If  I  cannot  have  her,  no  man  shall ! '  turned  the  sword 
which  was  aimed  at  his  brother,  against  that  hapless  maiden — • 
and — hear  me  out,  Senors,  before  you  flee  from  my  presence  as 
from  that  of  a  monster ! — stabbed  her  to  the  heart.  And  as 
she  died— one  moment  more,  Senors,  that  I  may  confess  all ! — 
she  looked  up  in  my  face  with  a  smile  as  of  heaven,  and 
thanked  me  for  having  rid  her  once  and  for  all  from  Christians 
and  their  villany." 

The  old  man  paused. 

"God  forgive  you,  Senor  !"  said  Jack  Brimblecombe  softly. 

"  You  do  not,  then,  turn  from  me  1  Do  not  curse  me  1 
Then  I  will  try  you  farther  still,  Senors.  I  will  know  from 
human  lips,  whether  man  can  do  such  deeds  as  I  have  done, 
and  yet  be  pitied  by  his  kind ;  that  so  I  may  have  some  hope, 
that  where  man  has  mercy,  God  may  have  mercy  also.  Do  you 
think  that  I  repented  at  those  awful  words'?  Nothing  less, 
Sefiors  all.  No  more  than  I  did  when  De  Soto  (on  whose  soul 
God  have  mercy)  called  me — me,  a  liar !  I  knew  myself  a 
sinner ;  and  for  that  very  reason  I  was  determined  to  sin.  I 
would  go  on,  that  I  might  prove  myself  right  to  myself,  by 


I  Is  How  nii;v   TOOK  [,-IIAI-.  xxv. 

showing  that  I  could  go  on,  and  not  be  struck  dead  from 
heaven.  Out  of  mere  pride,  Senors,  and  self-will,  I  wmiM  Jill 
up  the  cup  of  my  iniquity ;  and  I  filled  it. 

"  You  know,  doubtless,  Sefiors,  how,  after  the  death  of  old 
Alraagro,  his  son's  party  conspired  against  Pizarro.  Now  my 
brother  remained  faithful  to  his  old  coimiKimlrr ;  ami  for  that 
very  reason,  if  you  will  believe  it,  did  I  join  the  opposite  jwrt y, 
and  gave  myself  up,  body  and  soul,  to  do  Almagro's  work.  It 
was  enough  for  me,  that  the  brother  who  had  struck  me  thought 
a  man  right,  for  me  to  think  that  man  a  devil.  What  Almagro's 
work  was,  you  know.  He  slew  Pizarro.  Murdered  him,  Sefiors, 
like  a  dog,  or  rather,  like  an  old  lion." 

"  He  deserved  his  doom,"  said  Amyas. 

"  Let  God  judge  him,  Seflor,  not  we ;  and  least  of  all  of  us 
I,  who  drew  the  first  blood,  and  perhaps  the  last,  that  day.  I, 
Sefiors,  it  was  who  treacherously  stabbed  Francisco  de  Chanes 
on  the  staircase,  and  so  opened  the  door  which  else  had  foiled 
us  all ;  and  I — but  I  am  speaking  to  men  of  honour,  not  to 
butchers.  Suffice  it  that  the  old  man  died  like  a  lion,  and  that 
we  pulled  him  down,  young  as  we  were,  like  curs. 

"Well,  I  followed  Almagro's  fortunes.  I  helped  to  slay 
Alvarado.  Call  that  my  third  murder,  if  you  will,  for  if  he 
was  traitor  to  a  traitor,  I  was  traitor  to  a  true  man.  Then  to 
the  war ;  you  know  how  Vaca  de  Castro  was  sent  from  Spain 
to  bring  order  and  justice  where  was  nought  but  chaos,  and  the 
dance  of  all  devils.  We  met  him  on  the  hills  of  Chupas. 
Peter  of  Candia,  the  Venetian  villain,  pointed  our  guns  false, 
and  Almagro  stabbed  him  to  the  heart.  We  charged  with  our 
lances,  man  against  man,  horse  against  horse.  All  fights  I  ever 
fought "  (and  the  old  man's  eyes  flashed  out  the  ancient  fire) 
"  were  child's  play  to  that  day.  Our  lances  shivered  like  reeds, 
and  we  fell  on  with  battle-axe  and  mace.  None  asked  for 
quarter,  and  none  gave  it ;  friend  to  friend,  cousin  to  cousin — 
no,  nor  brother,  oh  God !  to  brother.  We  were  the  better 
armed  :  but  numbers  were  on  their  side.  Fat  Carbajal  charged 
our  cannon  like  an  elephant,  and  took  them ;  but  Holguin  was 
shot  down.  I  was  with  Almagro,  and  we  swept  all  before  us, 
inch  by  inch,  but  surely,  till  the  night  fell  Then  Vaca  de 
Castro,  the  licentiate,  the  clerk,  the  schoolman,  the  man  of 
books,  came  down  on  us  with  his  reserve  like  a  whirlwind.  Oh  ! 
cavaliers,  did  not  God  fight  against  us,  when  He  let  us,  the 
men  of  iron,  us,  the  heroes  of  Cuzco  and  Vilcaconga,  be  foiled  by 
a  scholar  in  a  black  gown,  with  a  pen  behind  his  ear  ?  We 


CHAP.  XXV.  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  449 

were  beaten.  Some  ran ;  some  did  not  run,  Seflors ;  and  I  did 
not.  Geronimo  de  Alvarado  shouted  to  me,  '  We  slew  Pizarro  ! 
We  killed  the  tyrant !'  and  we  rushed  upon  the  conqueror's 
lances,  to  die  like  cavaliers.  There  was  a  gallant  gentleman  in 
front  of  me.  His  lance  struck  me  in  the  crest,  and  bore  me 
over  my  horse's  croup  :  but  mine,  Sefiors,  struck  him  full  in  the 
vizor.  We  both  went  to  the  ground  together,  and  the  battle 
galloped  over  us. 

"  I  know  not  how  long  I  lay,  for  I  was  stunned  :  but  after 
awhile  I  lifted  myself.  My  lance  was  still  clenched  in  my 
hand,  broken  but  not  parted.  The  point  of  it  was  in  my  foe- 
man's  brain.  I  crawled  to  him,  weary  and  wounded,  and  saw 
that  he  was  a  noble  cavalier.  He  lay  on  his  back,  his  arms 
spread  wide.  I  knew  that  he  was  dead  :  but  there  came  over 
me  the  strangest  longing  to  see  that  dead  man's  face.  Perhaps 
I  knew  him.  At  least  I  could  set  my  foot  upon  it,  and  say, 
'  Vanquished  as  I  am,  there  lies  a  foe  !'  I  caught  hold  of  the 
rivets,  and  tore  his  helmet  off.  The  moon  shone  bright,  Seiiors, 
as  bright  as  she  shines  now — the  glaring,  ghastly,  tell-tale  moon, 
which  shows  man  all  the  sins  which  he  tries  to  hide ;  and  by 
that  moonlight,  Seiiors,  I  beheld  the  dead  man's  face.  And  it 
was  the  face  of  my  brother  ! 

"Did  you  ever  guess,  most  noble  cavaliers,  what  Cain's 
curse  might  be  like  1  Look  on  me,  and  know  ! 

"I  tore  oif  my  armour  and  fled,  as  Cain  fled — northward 
ever,  till  I  should  reach  a  land  where  the  name  of  Spaniard, 
yea,  and  the  name  of  Christian,  which  the  Spaniard  has  caused 
to  be  blasphemed  from  east  to  west,  should  never  come.  I  sank 
fainting,  and  waked  beneath  this  rock,  this  tree,  forty-four  years 
ago,  and  I  have  never  left  them  since,  save  once  to  obtain  seeds 
from  Indians,  who  knew  not  that  I  was  a  Spanish  Conquistador. 
And  may  God  have  mercy  on  my  soul !" 

The  old  man  ceased  ;  and  his  young  hearers,  deeply  affected 
by  his  tale,  sat  silent  for  a  few  minutes.  Then  John  Brimble- 
combe  spoke — 

"  You  are  old,  sir,  and  I  am  young ;  and  perhaps  it  is  not 
my  place  to  counsel  you.  Moreover,  sir,  in  spite  of  this  strange 
dress  of  mine,  I  am  neither  more  nor  less  than  an  English 
priest;  and  I  suppose  you  will  not  be  willing  to  listen  to  a 
heretic." 

"  I  have  seen  Catholics,  Sefior,  commit  too  many  abomina- 
tions even  with  the  name  of  God  upon  their  lips,  to  shrink  from 


450  IK'NV   TIIKY  TOOK  [CHAP.  XXV. 

a  heretic  if  In-  speak  wisely  :unl  well.     At  least,  you  are  a  nun  : 
and  iit'trr  all,  my  heart  yearns  more  and  more,  the  longer  ! 
among  yon,  fur  the  sjH'tvh  of  lyings  of  my  own  race.     Say  what 
you  will,  in  God's  name  1" 

"  I  hold,  sir,"  said  Jack  modestly,  "  according  to  holy 
Scripture,  that  whosoever  repents  from  his  heart,  as  God  knows 
you  seem  to  have  done,  is  forgiven  there  and  then  ;  and  though 
his  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow,  for  the  sake 
of  Him  who  died  for  all." 

"Amen  !  Amen  !"  said  the  old  man,  looking  lovingly  at  his 
little  crucifix.  "  I  hope  and  pray — His  name  is  Love.  I  know 
it  now;  who  better?  But,  sir,  even  if  He  have  forgiven  me, 
how  can  I  forgive  myself]  In  honour,  sir,  I  must  be  just,  and 
sternly  just,  to  myself,  even  if  God  be  indulgent ;  as  He  has 
been  to  me,  who  has  left  me  here  in  peace  for  forty  yearn,  in- 
stead of  giving  me  a  prey  to  the  first  puma  or  jaguar  which 
howls  round  me  every  night.  He  has  given  me  time  to  work 
out  my  own  salvation  ;  but  have  I  done  it  ?  That  doubt  mad- 
dens me  at  whiles.  When  I  look  upon  that  crucifix,  I  float  on 
boundless  hope :  but  if  I  take  my  eyes  from  it  for  a  moment, 
faith  fails,  and  all  is  blank,  and  dark  and  dreadfid,  till  the  devil 
whispers  me  to  plunge  into  yon  stream,  and  once  and  for  ever 
wake  to  certainty,  even  though  it  be  in  helL" 

What  was  Jack  to  answer  1  He  himself  knew  not  at  first. 
More  was  wanted  than  the  mere  repetition  of  free  pardon. 

"  Heretic  as  I  am,  sir,  you  will  not  believe  me  when  I  tell 
you,  as  a  priest,  that  God  accepts  your  penitence." 

"  My  heart  tells  me  so  already,  at  moments.  But  how  know 
I  that  it  does  not  lie  ?" 

"  Sen" or,"  said  Jack,  "  the  best  way  to  punish  oneself  for 
doing  ill,  seems  to  me  to  go  and  do  good ;  and  the  best  way  to 
find  out  whether  God  means  you  well,  is  to  find  out  whether 
He  will  help  you  to  do  well.  If  you  have  wronged  Indians  in 
time  past,  see  whether  you  cannot  right  them  now.  If  you  can, 
you  are  safe.  For  the  Lord  will  not  send  the  devil's  servants 
to  do  His  work." 

The  old  man  held  down  his  head. 

"  Right  the  Indians?     Alas  !  what  is  done,  is  done  !" 

"Not  altogether,  Seflor,"  said  Amyas,  "as  long  as  an  Indian 
remains  alive  in  New  Granada." 

"Sefior,  shall  I  confess  my  weakness?  A  voice  within  me 
has  bid  me  a  hundred  times  go  forth  and  labour  for  those  op- 
pressed wretches,  but  I  4are  not  obey.  I  dare  not  look  them 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  451 

in  the  face.  I  should  fancy  that  they  knew  my  story ;  that  the 
very  birds  upon  the  trees  would  reveal  my  crime,  and  bid  them 
turn  from  me  with  horror." 

"Sefior,"  said  Amyas,  "these  are  but  the  sick  fancies  of  a 
noble  spirit,  feeding  on  itself  in  solitude.  You  have  but  to  try 
to  conquer." 

"And  look  now,"  said  Jack,  "if  you  dare  not  go  forth  to 
help  the  Indians,  see  now  how  God  has  brought  the  Indians  to 
your  own  door.  Oh,  excellent  sir — 

"  Call  me  not  excellent,"  said  the  old  man,  smiting  his  breast. 

"  I  do,  and  shall,  sir,  while  I  see  in  you  an  excellent  repent- 
ance, an  excellent  humility,  and  an  excellent  justice,"  said  Jack. 
"  But  oh,  sir,  look  upon  these  forty  souls,  whom  we  must  leave 
behind,  like  sheep  which  have  no  shepherd.  Could  you  not 
teach  them  to  fear  God  and  to  love  each  other,  to  live  like 
rational  men,  perhaps  to  die  like  Christians  1  They  would  obey 
you  as  a  dog  obeys  his  master.  You  might  be  their  king,  their 
father,  yea,  their  pope,  if  you  would." 

"  You  do  not  speak  like  a  Lutheran." 

"  I  am  not  a  Lutheran,  but  an  Englishman  :  but,  Protestant 
as  I  am,  God  knows,  I  had  sooner  see  these  poor  souls  of  your 
creed,  than  of  none." 

"But  I  am  no  priest." 

"  When  they  are  ready,"  said  Jack,  "  the  Lord  will  send  a 
priest.  If  you  begin  the  good  work,  you  may  trust  to  Him 
to  finish  it." 

"  God  help  me  !"  said  the  old  warrior. 

The  talk  lasted  long  into  the  night,  but  Amyas  was  up  long 
before  daybreak,  felling  the  trees ;  and  as  he  and  Gary  walked 
back  to  breakfast,  the  first  thing  which  they  saw  was  the  old 
man  in  his  garden  with  four  or  five  Indian  children  round  him, 
talking  smilingly  to  them. 

"  The  old  man's  heart  is  sound  still,"  said  Will.  "  No  man 
is  lost  who  still  is  fond  of  little  children." 

"Ah,  Sefiors  !"  said  the  hermit  as  they  came  up,  "you  see 
that  I  have  begun  already  to  act  upon  your  advice." 

"  And  you  have  begun  at  the  right  end,"  quoth  Amyas ; 
"  if  you  win  the  children,  you  win  the  mothers." 

"  And  if  you  win  the  mothers,"  quoth  Will,  "  the  poor 
fathers  must  needs  obey  their  wives,  and  follow  in  the  wake." 

The  old  man  only  sighed.  "  The  prattle  of  these  little  ones 
softens  my  hard  heart,  Senors,  with  a  new  pleasure;  but  it 
saddens  me,  when  I  recollect  that  there  may  be  children  of  mine 


452  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxv. 

now  in  the  world — rliiMivn  who  have  never  known  a  father's 
love — never  known  aught  but  a  master's  threats " 

"  God  has  taken  care  of  these  little  ones.  Trust  that  He 
has  taken  care  of  yours." 

That  day  Ainyiis  assembled  the  Indians,  and  told  them  that 
they  must  obey  the  hermit  as  their  king,  and  settle  there  as 
best  they  could :  for  if  they  broke  up  and  wandered  away, 
nothing  was  left  for  them  but  to  fall  one  by  one  into  the  hands 
of  the  Spaniards.  They  heard  him  with  their  usual  melancholy 
and  stupid  acquiescence,  and  went  and  came  as  they  were  bid, 
like  animated  machines;  but  the  Negroes  were  of  a  diffcn  nt 
temper;  and  four  or  five  stout  fellows  gave  Amyas  to  un<l« T- 
stand  that  they  had  been  warriors  in  their  own  country,  and 
that  warriors  they  would  be  still;  and  nothing  should  keep 
them  from  Spaniard-hunting.  Amyas  saw  that  the  presence  of 
these  desperadoes  in  the  new  colony  would  both  endanger  the 
authority  of  the  hermit,  and  bring  the  Spaniards  down  upon  it 
in  a  few  weeks ;  so,  making  a  virtue  of  necessity,  he  asked 
them  whether  they  would  go  Spaniard-hunting  with  him. 

This  was  just  what  the  bold  Coromantees  wished  for ;  they 
grinned  and  shouted  their  delight  at  serving  under  so  great  a 
warrior,  and  then  set  to  work  most  gallantly,  getting  through 
more  in  the  day  than  any  ten  Indians,  and  indeed  than  any  two 
Englishmen. 

So  went  on  several  days,  during  which  the  trees  were  felled, 
and  the  process  of  digging  them  out  began ;  while  Ayacanora, 
silent  and  moody,  wandered  into  the  woods  all  day  with  her 
blow-gun,  and  brought  home  at  evening  a  load  of  parrots, 
monkeys,  and  curassows ;  two  or  three  old  hands  were  sent  out 
to  hunt  likewise ;  so  that,  what  with  the  game  and  the  fish  of  the 
river,  which  seemed  inexhaustible,  and  the  fruit  of  the  m-idi 
bouring  palm-trees,  there  was  no  lack  of  food  in  the  camp.  But 
what  to  do  with  Ayacanora  weighed  heavily  on  the  mind  of 
Amyas.  He  opened  his  heart  on  the  matter  to  the  old  hermit, 
and  asked  him  whether  he  would  take  charge  of  her.  The 
latter  smiled,  and  shook  his  head  at  the  notion.  "If  your 
report  of  her  be  true,  I  may  as  well  take  in  hand  to  tame  a 
jaguar."  However,  he  promised  to  try;  and  one  evening,  as 
they  were  all  standing  together  before  the  mouth  of  the  cave, 
Ayacanora  came  up  smiling  with  the  fruit  of  her  day's  sport ; 
and  Amyas,  thinking  this  a  fit  opportunity,  began  a  rurcfully- 
prepared  harangue  to  her,  which  he  intended  to  be  altogether 
soothing,  and  even  pathetic, — to  the  effect  that  the  mai«l»-n, 


CHAP,  xxv.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  453 

having  no  parents,  was  to  look  upon  this  good  old  man  as  her 
father ;  that  he  would  instruct  her  in  the  white  man's  religion 
(at  which  promise  Yeo,  as  a  good  Protestant,  winced  a  good 
deal),  and  teach  her  how  to  be  happy  and  good,  and  so  forth ; 
and  that,  in  fine,  she  was  to  remain  there  with  the  hermit. 

She  heard  him  quietly,  her  great  dark  eyes  opening  wider 
and  wider,  her  bosom  swelling,  her  stature  seeming  to  grow 
taller  every  moment,  as  she  clenched  her  weapons  firmly  in  both 
her  hands.  Beautiful  as  she  always  was,  she  had  never  looked 
so  beautiful  before ;  and  as  Amyas  spoke  of  parting  with  her, 
it  was  like  throwing  away  a  lovely  toy ;  but  it  must  be  done, 
for  her  sake,  for  his,  perhaps  for  that  of  all  the  crew. 

The  last  words  had  hardly  passed  his  lips,  when,  with  a 
shriek  of  mingled  scorn,  rage,  and  fear,  she  dashed  through  the 
astonished  group. 

"Stop  her  !" were  Amyas's  first  words;  but  his  next  were, 
"  Let  her  go ! "  for,  springing  like  a  deer  through  the  little 
garden,  and  over  the  flower-fence,  she  turned,  menacing  with  her 
blow-gun  the  sailors,  who  had  already  started  in  her  pursuit. 

"  Let  her  alone,  for  Heaven's  sake  ! "  shouted  Amyas,  who, 
he  scarce  knew  why,  shrank  from  the  thought  of  seeing  those 
graceful  limbs  struggling  in  the  seamen's  grasp. 

She  turned  again,  and  in  another  minute  her  gaudy  plumes 
had  vanished  among  the  dark  forest  stems,  as  swiftly  as  if  she 
had  been  a  passing  bird. 

All  stood  thunderstruck  at  this  unexpected  end  to  the 
conference.  At  last  Amyas  spoke — 

"  There's  no  use  in  standing  here  idle,  gentlemen.  Staring 
after  her  won't  bring  her  back.  After  all,  I'm  glad  she's  gone." 

But  the  tone  of  his  voice  belied  his  words.  Now  he  had 
lost  her,  he  wanted  her  back ;  and  perhaps  every  one  present, 
except  he,  guessed  why. 

But  Ayacanora  did  not  return ;  and  ten  days  more  went  on 
in  continual  toil  at  the  canoes  without  any  news  of  her  from 
the  hunters.  Amyas,  by  the  by,  had  strictly  bidden  these 
last  not  to  follow  the  girl,  not  even  to  speak  to  her,  if  they 
came  across  her  in  their  wanderings.  He  was  shrewd  enough 
to  guess  that  the  only  way  to  cure  her  sulkiness  was  to  out- 
sulk  her ;  but  there  was  no  sign  of  her  presence  in  any  direction ; 
and  the  canoes  being  finished  at  last,  the  gold,  and  such  pro- 
visions as  they  could  collect,  were  placed  on  board,  and  one 
evening  the  party  prepared  for  their  fresh  voyage.  They  deter- 
mined to  travel  as  much  as  possible  by  night,  for  fear  of  dis- 


I.">1  II"\V  THEY  TOOK  [,  IIAI-.  XXV. 

covery,  especially  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  few  Spanish 
settlements  which  were  then  scattered  along  the  banks  of  the 
main  stream.  These,  however,  the  negroes  knew,  so  that  there 
was  no  fear  of  coming  on  them  unawares ;  and  as  for  falling 
asleep  in  their  night  journeys,  "Nobody,"  the  negroes  said, 
"  ever  slept  on  the  Magdalena ;  the  mosquitoes  took  too  good 
care  of  that."  Which  fact  Amyas  and  his  crew  verified  after- 
wards as  thoroughly  as  wretched  men  could  do. 

The  sun  had  sunk  ;  the  night  had  all  but  fallen ;  the  men 
were  all  on  board ;  Amyas  in  command  of  one  canoe,  Gary  of 
the  other.  The  Indians  were  grouped  on  the  bank,  watch  in;,' 
the  party  with  their  listless  stare,  and  with  them  the  young 
guide,  who  preferred  remaining  among  the  Indians,  and  was 
made  supremely  happy  by  the  present  of  a  Spanish  sword  and 
an  English  axe ;  while,  in  the  midst,  the  old  hermit,  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  prayed  God's  blessing  on  them. 

"I  owe  to  you,  noble  cavaliers,  new  peace,  new  labour,  I 
may  say,  new  life.  May  God  be  with  you,  and  teach  you  to 
use  your  gold  and  your  swords  better  than  I  used  mine." 

The  adventurers  waved  their  hands  to  him. 

"Give  way,  men,"  cried  Amyas;  and  as  he  spoke  the 
paddles  dashed  into  the  water,  to  a  right  English  hurrah ! 
which  sent  the  birds  fluttering  from  their  roosts,  and  was 
answered  by  the  yell  of  a  hundred  monkeys,  and  the  distant 
roar  of  the  jaguar. 

About  twenty  yards  below,  a  wooded  rock,  some  ten  feet 
high,  hung  over  the  stream.  The  river  was  not  there  more  than 
fifteen  yards  broad ;  deep  near  the  rock,  shallow  on  the  farther 
side ;  and  Amyas's  canoe  led  the  way,  within  ten  feet  of  the 
stone. 

As  he  passed,  a  dark  figure  leapt  from  the  bushes  on  the 
edge,  and  plunged  heavily  into  the  water  close  to  the  boat.  All 
started.  A  jaguar  1  No ;  he  would  not  have  missed  so  short 
a  spring.  What,  then  1  A  human  being  ? 

A  head  rose  panting  to  the  surface,  and  with  a  few  strong 
strokes,  the  swimmer  had  clutched  the  gunwale.  It  was 
Ayacanora ! 

"  Go  back ! "  shouted  Amyas.     "  Go  back,  girl ! " 

She  uttered  the  same  wild  cry  with  which  she  had  fled  into 
the  forest. 

"  I  will  die,  then  ! "  and  she  threw  up  her  arms.  Another 
moment,  and  she  had  sunk. 

To  see  her  perish  before  his  eyes !  who  could  bear  that  ? 


CHAP.  XXV.]  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.  455 

Her  hands  alone  were  above  the  surface.  Amyas  caught  con- 
vulsively at  her  in  the  darkness,  and  seized  her  wrist. 

A  yell  rose  from  the  negroes  :  a  roar  from  the  crew  as  from 
a  cage  of  lions.  There  was  a  rush  and  a  swirl  along  the  sur- 
face of  the  stream;  and  "Caiman!  caiman!"  shouted  twenty 
voices. 

Now,  or  never,  for  the  strong  arm  !  "To  larboard,  men,  or 
over  we  go  ! "  cried  Amyas,  and  with  one  huge  heave,  he  lifted 
the  slender  body  upon  the  gunwale.  Her  lower  limbs  were 
still  in  the  water,  when,  within  arm's  length,  rose  above  the 
stream  a  huge  muzzle.  The  lower  jaw  lay  flat,  the  upper 
reached  as  high  as  Amyas's  head.  He  could  see  the  long  fangs 
gleam  white  in  the  moonshine ;  he  could  see  for  one  moment, 
full  down  the  monstrous  depths  of  that  great  gape,  which  would 
have  crushed  a  buffalo.  Three  inches,  and  no  more,  from  that 
soft  side,  the  snout  surged  up 

There  was  the  gleam  of  an  axe  from  above,  a  sharp  ringing 
blow,  and  the  jaws  came  together  with  a  clash  which  rang  from 
bank  to  bank.  He  had  missed  her !  Swerving  beneath  the 
blow,  his  snout  had  passed  beneath  her  body,  and  smashed  up 
against  the  side  of  the  canoe,  as  the  striker,  overbalanced,  fell 
headlong  overboard  upon  the  monster's  back. 

"  Who  is  it  V 

"  Yeo  !"  shouted  a  dozen. 

Man  and  beast  went  down  together,  and  where  they  sank, 
the  moonlight  shone  on  a  great  swirling  eddy,  while  all  held 
their  breaths,  and  Ayacanora  cowered  down  into  the  bottom  of 
the  canoe,  her  proud  spirit  utterly  broken,  for  the  first  time,  by 
the  terror  of  that  great  need,  and  by  a  bitter  loss.  For  in  the 
struggle,  the  holy  trumpet,  companion  of  all  her  wanderings,  had 
fallen  from  her  bosom ;  and  her  fond  hope  of  bringing  magic 
prosperity  to  her  English  friends  had  sunk  with  it  to  the  bottom 
of  the  stream. 

None  heeded  her ;  not  even  Amyas,  round  whose  knees  she 
clung,  fawning  like  a  spaniel  dog  :  for  where  was  Yeo  ? 

Another  swirl ;  a  shout  from  the  canoe  abreast  of  them,  and 
Yeo  rose,  having  dived  clean  under  his  own  boat,  and  risen 
between  the  two. 

"  Safe  as  yet,  lads !  Heave  me  .a  line,  or  he'll  have  me 
after  all." 

But  ere  the  brute  reappeared,  the  old  man  was  safe  on 
board. 

"  The  Lord  has  stood  by  me,"  panted  he,  as  he  shot  the 


456  HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  GOLD-TRAIN.        [CHAP.  XXV. 

water  from  his  cars.  "  We  went  down  together :  I  knew  the 
Indian  trirk,  ami  lx  iii^'  uppermost,  had  my  thumbs  in  his  eyes 
before  he  could  turn  :  but  he  carried  me  down  to  the  very  mud. 
My  breath  was  nigh  gone,  so  I  left  go,  and  struck  up  :  but  my 
toes  tingled  as  I  rose  again,  I'll  warrant  There  the  beggar  is, 
looking  for  me,  I  declare  !" 

And,  true  enough,  there  was  the  huge  brute  swimming 
slowly  round  and  round,  in  search  of  his  lost  victim.  It  was 
too  dark  to  put  an  arrow  into  his  eye ;  so  they  paddled  on, 
while  Ayacanora  crouched  silently  at  Amyas's  feet. 

"  Yeo  !"  asked  he,  in  a  low  voice,  "what  shall  we  do  with 
her?" 

"  Why  ask  me,  sir  ?"  said  the  old  man,  as  he  had  a  very 
good  right  to  ask. 

"  Because,  when  one  don't  know  oneself,  one  had  best  inquire 
of  one's  elders.  Besides  you  saved  her  life  at  the  risk  of  your 
own,  and  have  a  right  to  a  voice  in  the  matter,  if  any  one  has, 
old  friend." 

"  Then,  my  dear  young  captain,  if  the  Lord  puts  a  precious 
soul  under  your  care,  don't  you  refuse  to  bear  the  burden  He 
lays  on  you." 

Amyas  was  silent  awhile ;  while  Ayacanora,  who  was  evi- 
dently utterly  exhausted  by  the  night's  adventure,  and  probably 
by  long  wanderings,  watchings,  and  weepings  which  had  gone 
before  it,  sank  with  her  head  against  his  knee,  fell  fast  asleep, 
and  breathed  as  gently  as  a  child. 

At  last  he  rose  in  the  canoe,  and  called  Gary  alongside. 

"  Listen  to  me,  gentlemen,  and  sailors  all.  You  know  that 
we  have  a  maiden  on  board  here,  by  no  choice  of  our  own. 
Whether  she  will  be  a  blessing  to  us,  God  alone  can  tell :  but 
she  may  turn  to  the  greatest  curse  which  has  befallen  us  ever 
since  we  came  out  over  Bar  three  years  ago.  Promise  me  one 
thing,  or  I  put  her  ashore  the  next  beach ;  and  that  is,  that 
you  will  treat  her  as  if  she  were  your  own  sister ;  and  make  an 
agreement  here  and  now,  that  if  the  maid  comes  to  harm  among 
us,  the  man  that  is  guilty  shall  hang  for  it  by  the  neck  till  he's 
dead,  even  though  he  be  I,  Captain  Leigh,  who  speak  to  you. 
I'll  hang  you,  as  I  am  a  Christian ;  and  I  give  you  free  leave  to 
hang  me." 

"  A  very  fair  bargain,"  quoth  Gary,  "  and  I  for  one  will  see 
it  kept  to.  Lads,  we'll  twine  a  double  strong  halter  for  the 
captain  as  we  go  down  along." 

"  I  am  not  jesting,  Will." 


CHAP.  XXVI.]     HOW  THEY  TOOK  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.         457 

"I  know  it,  good  old  lad,"  said  Gary,  stretching  out  his 
own  hand  to  him  across  the  water  through  the  darkness,  and 
giving  him  a  hearty  shake.  "  I  know  it ;  and  listen,  men  !  So 
help  me  God !  but  I'll  be  the  first  to  back  the  Captain  in  being 
as  good  as  his  word,  as  I  trust  he  never  will  need  to  be." 

"Amen!"  said  Brimblecombe.  "Amen!"  said  Yeo;  and 
many  an  honest  voice  joined  in  that  honest  compact,  and  kept 
it  too,  like  men. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

HOW    THEY    TOOK    THE    GKEAT    GALLEON. 

"  When  captains  courageous,  whom  death  could  not  daunt, 
Did  march  to  the  siege  of  the  city  of  Gaunt, 
They  muster'd  their  soldiers  by  two  and  by  three, 
But  the  foremost  in  battle  was  Mary  Ambree. 
When  brave  Sir  John  Major  was  slain  in  her  sight, 
Who  washer  true  lover,  her  joy  and  delight, 
Because  he  was  murther'd  most  treacherfcuslie, 
Then  vow'd  to  avenge  him  fair  Mary  Ambree." 

Old  Ballad.     A.D.  1584. 

ONE  more  glance  at  the  golden  tropic  sea,  and  the  golden 
tropic  evenings,  by  the  shore  of  New  Granada,  in  the  golden 
Spanish  Main. 

The  bay  of  Santa  Martha  is  rippling  before  the  land-breeze 
one  sheet  of  living  flame.  The  mighty  forests  are  sparkling 
with  myriad  fire-flies.  The  lazy  mist  which  lounges  round  the 
inner  hills  shines  golden  in  the  sunset  rays;  and,  nineteen 
thousand  feet  aloft,  the  mighty  peak  of  Horqueta  cleaves  the 
abyss  of  air,  rose-red  against  the  dark-blue  vault  of  heaven. 
The  rosy  cone  fades  to  a  dull  leaden  hue ;  but  only  for  awhile. 
The  stars  flash  out  one  by  one,  and  Venus,  like  another  moon, 
tinges  the  eastern  snows  with  gold,  and  sheds  across  the  bay  a 
long  yellow  line  of  rippling  light.  Everywhere  is  glory  and 
richness.  What  wonder  if  the  earth  in  that  enchanted  land  be 
as  rich  to  her  inmost  depths  as  she  is  upon  the  surface  ?  The 
heaven,  the  hills,  the  sea,  are  one  sparkling  garland  of  jewels — 
what  wonder  if  the  soil  be  jewelled  also  ?  if  every  watercourse 
and  bank  of  earth  be  spangled  with  emeralds  and  rubies,  with 
grains  of  gold  and  feathered  wreaths  of  native  silver  *? 

So  thought,  in  a  poetic  mood,  the  Bishop  of  Carthagena, 
as  he  sat  in  the  state  cabin  of  that  great  galleon,  The  City  of 
the  True  Cross,  and  looked  pensively  out  of  the  window  towards 


458  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxvi. 

tin-  .shore.  The  good  imm  was  in  a  state  of  holy  calm.  His 
stout  figure  rested  on  one  easy-chair,  his  stout  ankles  on  another, 
Krside  a  table  spread  with  oranges  and  limes,  guavas  and  pine- 
apples, and  all  the  fruits  of  Ind. 

An  Indian  girl,  bedizened  with  scarfs  and  gold  chains,  kept 
nil*  tlie  tlii-s  with  a  fan  of  feathers ;  and  by  him,  in  a  pail  of  ice 
lii 'in  the  Horqueta  (the  gift  of  some  pious  Spanish  lady,  who 
had  "  spent "  an  Indian  or  two  in  bringing  down  the  precious 
offering),  stood  more  than  one  flask  of  virtuous  wine  of  Alicant. 
But  he  was  not  so  selfish,  good  man,  as  to  enjoy  either  ice  or 
wine  alone ;  Don  Pedro,  colonel  of  the  soldiers  on  board,  Don 
Alverez,  Intendant  of  His  Catholic  Majesty's  Customs  at  Santa 
Martha,  and  Don  Paul,  captain  of  mariners  in  The  City  of 
the  True  Cross,  had,  by  his  especial  request,  come  to  his  assist- 
ance that  evening,  and  with  two  friars,  who  sat  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  table,  were  doing  their  best  to  prevent  the  good  man 
from  taking  too  bitterly  to  heart  the  present  unsatisfactory 
state  of  his  cathedral  town,  which  had  just  t»een  sacked  and 
burnt  by  an  old  friend  of  ours,  Sir  Francis  Drake. 

"  We  have  been  great  sufferers,  Senors, — ah,  great  sufferers," 
snuffled  the  bishop,  quoting  Scripture,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
day,  glibly  enough,  but  often  much  too  irreverently  for  me  to 
repeat,  so  boldly  were  his  texts  travestied,  and  so  freely  inter- 
larded by  grumblings  at  Tita  and  the  mosquitoes.  "Great 
sufferers,  truly ;  but  there  shall  be  a  remnant, — ah,  a  remnant 
like  the  shaking  of  the  olive  tree  and  the  gleaning  grapes  when 
the  vintage  is  done. — Ah!  Gold?  Yes,  I  trust  Our  Lady's 
mercies  are  not  shut  up,  nor  her  arms  shortened. — Look, 
Sefiors!" — and  he  pointed  majestically  out  of  the  window. 
"  It  looks  gold  !  it  smells  of  gold,  as  I  may  say,  by  a  poetical 
licence.  Yea,  the  very  waves,  as  they  ripple  past  us,  sing  of 
gold,  gold,  gold!" 

"  It  is  a  great  privilege,"  said  the  intendant,  "  to  have 
comfort  so  gracefully  administered  at  once  by  a  churchman  and 
a  scholar." 

"A  poet,  too,"  said  Don  Pedro.  "You  have  no  notion 
what  sweet  sonnets " 

"  Hush,  Don  Pedro — hush  !  If  I,  a  mateless  bird,  have  spent 
an  idle  hour  in  teaching  lovers  how  to  sing,  why,  what  of  that  ? 
I  am  a  churchman,  Sefiors;  but  I  am  a  man  and  I  can  fid, 
Senors;  I  win  sympathise;  I  can  palliate;  I  can  i-x.-n.-i-.  Who 
knows  better  than  I  how  much  human  nature  lurks  in  us  fallen 
sons  of  Adam  1  Tita!" 


CHAP.  XXVI. J  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  459 

"  Um  ?"  said  the  trembling  girl,  with  a  true  Indian  grunt 

"Fill  his  Excellency  the  Intendant's  glass.  Does  much 
more  treasure  come  down,  illustrious  Seiior  1  May  the  poor  of 
Mary  hope  for  a  few  more  crumbs  from  their  Mistress's  table  1 " 

"  Not  a  pezo,  I  fear.  The  big  white  cow  up  there  " — and 
he  pointed  to  the  Horqueta — "  has  been  milked  dry  for  this 
year." 

"Ah  !"  And  he  looked  up  at  the  magnificent  snow  peak. 
"  Only  good  to  cool  wine  with,  eh  1  and  as  safe  for  the  time 
being  as  Solomon's  birds." 

"Solomon's  birds'?  Explain  your  recondite  allusion,  my 
lord." 

"  Enlighten  us,  your  Excellency,  enlighten  us." 

"  Ah  !  thereby  hangs  a  tale.  You  know  the  holy  birds  who 
run  up  and  down  on  the  Prado  at  Seville  among  the  ladies' 
pretty  feet, — eh  1  with  hooked  noses  and  cinnamon  crests  1  Of 
course.  Hoopoes — Upupa,  as  the  classics  have  it.  Well, 
Senors,  once  on  a  time,  the  story  goes,  these  hoopoes  all  had 
golden  crowns  on  their  heads ;  and,  Senors,  they  took  the  con- 
sequences— eh  ?  But  it  befell  on  a  day  that  all  the  birds  and 
beasts  came  to  do  homage  at  the  court  of  His  Most  Catholic 
Majesty  King  Solomon,  and  among  them  came  these  same 
hoopoes;  and  they  had  a  little  request  to  make,  the  poor  rogues. 
And  what  do  you  think  it  was  ?  Why,  that  King  Solomon 
would  pray  for  them  that  they  might  wear  any  sort  of  crowns 
but  these  same  golden  ones ;  for — listen,  Tita,  and  see  the 
snare  of  riches — mankind  so  hunted,  and  shot,  and  trapped,  and 
snared  them,  for  the  sake  of  these  same  golden  crowns,  that  life 
was  a  burden  to  bear.  So  Solomon  prayed,  and  instead  of 
golden  crowns,  they  all  received  crowns  of  feathers ;  and  ever 
since,  Senors,  they  live  as  merrily  as  crickets  in  an  oven,  and 
also  have  the  honour  of  bearing  the  name  of  His  Most  Catholic 
Majesty  King  Solomon.  Tita!  fill  the  Seiior  Commandant's 
glass.  Fray  Gerundio,  what  are  you  whispering  about  down 
there,  sir1?" 

Fray  Gerundio  had  merely  commented  to  his  brother  on  the 
bishop's  story  of  Solomon's  birds  with  an — 

"0  si  sic  omnia! — would  that  all  gold  would  turn  to  feathers 
in  like  wise  !" 

"Then,  friend,"  replied  the  other,  a  Dominican,  like  Ger- 
undio,  but  of  a  darker  and  sterner  complexion,  "  corrupt  human 
nature  would  within  a  week  discover  some  fresh  bauble,  for 
which  to  kill  and  be  killed  in  vain." 


460  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxvi. 

"  What  is  that,  Fray  Gerundio?"  asked  the  bishop  again. 

"  I  merely  remarked,  that  it  were  well  for  the  world  it'  all 
nuiikiinl  were  to  put  up  the  same  prayer  as  the  hoopoes." 

"  World,  sir?  What  do  you  know  about  the  world  ?  Con- 
vert your  Indians,  sir,  if  you  please,  and  leave  affairs  of  state  to 
your  superiors.  You  will  excuse  him,  Seuors"  (turning  to 
tin-  Dons,  and  speaking  in  a  lower  tone).  "A  very  worthy 
and  pious  man,  but  a  poor  peasant's  son  ;  and  beside — you 
understand.  A  little  wrong  here ;  too  much  fasting  and  watch- 
ing, I  fear,  good  man."  And  the  bishop  touched  his  forehead 
knowingly,  to  signify  that  Fray  Gerundio's  wits  were  in  an 
unsatisfactory  state. 

The  Fray  heard  and  saw  with  a  quiet  smile.  He  was  one 
of  those  excellent  men  whom  the  cruelties  of  his  countrymen 
had  stirred  up  (as  the  darkness,  by  mere  contrast,  makes  the 
light  more  bright),  as  they  did  Las  Casas,  Gasca,  and  many 
another  noble  name  which  is  written  in  the  book  of  life,  to 
deeds  of  love  and  pious  daring  worthy  of  any  creed  or  age. 
True  Protestants,  they  protested,  even  before  kings,  against  the 
evil  which  lay  nearest  them,  the  sin  which  really  beset  them  ; 
true  liberals,  they  did  not  disdain  to  call  the  dark-skinned 
heathen  their  brothers ;  and  asserted  in  terms  which  astonish 
us,  when  we  recollect  the  age  in  which  they  were  spoken,  the 
inherent  freedom  of  every  being  who  wore  the  flesh  and  blood 
which  their  Lord  wore;  true  martyrs,  they  bore  witness  of 
Christ,  and  received  too  often  the  reward  of  such,  in  slander 
and  contempt.  Such  an  one  was  Fray  Gerundio ;  a  poor, 
mean,  clumsy-tongued  peasant's  son,  who  never  could  put  three 
sentences  together,  save  when  he  waxed  eloquent,  crucifix  in 
hand,  amid  some  group  of  Indians  or  negroes.  He  was  accus- 
tomed to  such  rebuffs  as  the  bishop's ;  he  took  them  for  what 
they  were  worth,  and  sipped  his  wine  in  silence ;  while  the  talk 
went  on. 

"They  say,"  observed  the  commandant,  "that  a  very 
small  Plate-fleet  will  go  to  Spain  this  year." 

"What  else?"  says  the  intendant  "What  have  we  to 
send,  in  the  name  of  all  saints,  since  these  accursed  English 
Lutherans  have  swept  us  out  clean?" 

"And  if  we  had  anything  to  send,"  says  the  sea-captain, 
"  what  have  we  to  send  it  in  ?  That  fiend  incarnate, 
Drake " 

"Ah!"  said  his  holiness;  "spare  my  ears!  Don  Pedro, 
you  will  oblige  my  weakness  by  not  mentioning  that  man ; — 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  461 

his  name  is  Tartarean,  unfit  for  polite  lips.  Draco — a  dragon 
— serpent — the  emblem  of  Diabolus  himself — ah  !  And  the 
guardian  of  the  golden  apples  of  the  West,  who  would  fain 
devour  our  new  Hercules,  His  Most  Catholic  Majesty.  Deceived 
Eve,  too,  with  one  of  those  same  apples — a  very  evil  name, 
Senors — a  Tartarean  name, — Tita  !" 

"Urn!" 

"  FiU  my  glass." 

"Nay,"  cried  the  colonel,  with  a  great  oath,  "this  English 
fellow  is  of  another  breed  of  serpent  from  that,  I  warrant." 

"  Your  reason,  Senor ;  your  reason  ?" 

"  Because  this  one  would  have  seen  Eve  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  before  he  let  her,  or  any  one  but  himself,  taste  aught 
which  looked  like  gold." 

"Ah,  ah! — very  good!  But — we  laugh,  valiant  Senors, 
while  the  Church  weeps.  Alas  for  my  sheep  !" 

"  And  alas  for  their  sheepfold !  It  will  be  four  years 
before  we  can  get  Carthagena  rebuilt  again.  And  as  for  the 
blockhouse,  when  we  shall  get  that  rebuilt,  Heaven  only  knows, 
while  His  Majesty  goes  on  draining  the  Indies  for  his  English 
Armada.  The  town  is  as  naked  now  as  an  Indian's  back." 

"  Baptista  Antonio,  the  surveyor,  has  sent  home  by  me  a 
relation  to  the  king,  setting  forth  our  defenceless  state.  But 
to  read  a  relation  and  to  act  on  it  are  two  cocks  of  very 
different  hackles,  bishop,  as  all  statesmen  know.  Heaven 
grant  we  may  have  orders  by  the  next  fleet  to  fortify,  or  we 
shall  be  at  the  mercy  of  every  English  pirate  !" 

"Ah,  that  blockhouse!"  sighed  the  bishop.  "That  was 
indeed  a  villanous  trick.  A  hundred  and  ten  thousand  ducats 
for  the  ransom  of  the  town  !  After  having  burned  and  plun- 
dered the  one-half — and  having  made  me  dine  with  them  too, 
ah!  and  sit  between  the — the  serpent,  and  his  lieutenant- 
general — and  drunk  my  health  in  my  own  private  wine — wine 
that  I  had  from  Xeres  nine  years  ago,  Senors — and  offered,  the 
shameless  heretics,  to  take  me  to  England,  if  I  would  turn 
Lutheran,  and  find  me  a  wife,  and  make  an  honest  man  of  me 
— ah  !  and  then  to  demand  fresh  ransom  for  the  priory  and  the 
fort — perfidious  !" 

"Well,"  said  the  colonel,  "they  had  the  law  of  us,  the 
cunning  rascals,  for  we  forgot  to  mention  anything  but  the 
town,  in  the  agreement.  Who  would  have  dreamed  of  such  a 
fetch  as  that?" 

"  So  I  told  my  good  friend  the  prior,  when  he  came  to  me 


462  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP,  x 

to  borrow  the  thousand  crowns.  It  was  Heaven's  wilL  Unex- 
pected like  the  thunderbolt,  and  to  be  borne  aa  such.  Every 
man  must  bear  his  own  burden.  How  could  I  lend  him 
:uij,'ht  1" 

"  Your  holincsa's  money  hail  been  all  carried  off  by  them 
before,"  said  the  intendant,  who  knew,  and  none  better,  the 
exact  contrary. 

"  Just  so — all  my  scanty  savings  !  desolate  in  my  lone  old 
age.  Ah,  Senors,  had  we  not  had  warning  of  the  coining  of 
these  wretches  from  my  dear  friend  the  Marquess  of  Santa 
Cruz,  whom  I  remember  daily  in  my  prayers,  we  had  been  like 
to  them  who  go  down  qm'ck  into  the  pit.  I  too  might  have 
saved  a  trifle,  had  I  been  minded  :  but  in  thinking  too  much  of 
others,  I  forgot  myself,  alas  ! " 

"  Warning  or  none,  we  had  no  right  to  be  beaten  by  such  a 
handful,"  said  the  sea-captain  ;  "  and  a  shame  it  is,  and  a  shame 
it  will  be,  for  many  a  day  to  come." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  cast  any  slur,  sir,  upon  the  courage  and 
conduct  of  His  Catholic  Majesty's  soldiers  T  asked  the  colonel. 

"  1 1 — No ;  but  we  were  foully  beaten,  and  that  behind  our 
barricades  too,  and  there's  the  plain  truth." 

"  Beaten,  sir !  Do  you  apply  such  a  term  to  the  fortunes 
of  war  ?  What  more  could  our  governor  have  done  1  Had  we 
not  the  ways  filled  with  poisoned  caltrops,  guarded  by  Indi.-m 
archers,  barred  with  butts  full  of  earth,  raked  with  culverins 
and  arquebuses  ?  What  familiar  spirit  had  we,  sir,  to  tell  us 
that  these  villains  would  come  along  the  sea-beach,  and  not  l>y 
the  high-road,  like  Christian  men  1" 

"Ah!"  said  the  bishop,  "it  was  by  intuition  diabolic,  I 
doubt  not,  that  they  took  that  way.  Satanas  must  need  help 
those  who  serve  him ;  and  for  my  part,  I  can  only  attribute  (I 
would  the  captain  here  had  piety  enough  to  do  so)  the  misfor- 
tune which  occurred  to  art-magic.  I  believe  these  men  to  have 
been  possessed  by  all  fiends  whatsoever." 

"  Well,  your  holiness,"  said  the  colonel,  "  there  may  have 
been  devilry  in  it ;  how  else  would  men  have  dared  to  run  right 
into  the  mouths  of  our  cannon,  fire  their  shot  against  our  very 
noses,  and  tumble  harmless  over  those  huge  butts  of  earth  1" 

"  Doubtless  by  force  of  the  fiends  which  raged  with  them," 
interposed  the  bishop. 

"  And  then,  with  their  blasphemous  cries,  leap  upon  us  with 
sword  and  pike?  I  myself  saw  that  Lieu  tenant -General  Car- 
lisle hew  down  with  one  stroke  that  noble  young  gentleman  the 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  463 

ensign -bearer,  your  Excellency's  sister's  son's  nephew,  though 
he  was  armed  cap-a-pid  Was  not  art-magic  here  1  And  that 
most  furious  and  blaspheming  Lutheran  Captain  Young,  I  saw 
how  he  caught  our  general  by  the  head,  after  the  illustrious 
Don  Alonzo  had  given  him  a  grievous  wound,  threw  him  to  the 
earth,  and  so  took  him.  Was  not  art-magic  here  V 

"Well,  I  say,"  said  the  captain,  "if  you  are  looking  for 
art-magic,  what  say  you  to  their  marching  through  the  flank 
fire  of  our  galleys,  with  eleven  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  two 
hundred  shot  playing  on  them,  as  if  it  had  been  a  mosquito 
swarm  1  Some  said  my  men  fired  too  high  :  but  that  was  the 
English  rascals'  doing,  for  they  got  down  on  the  tide  beach. 
But,  SefSor  Commandant,  though  Satan  may  have  taught  them 
that  trick,  was  it  he  that  taught  them  to  carry  pikes  a  foot 
longer  than  yours  ?" 

"Ah,  well,"  said  the  bishop,  "sacked  are  we;  and  Saint 
Domingo,  as  I  hear,  in  worse  case  than  we  are;  and  Saint 
Augustine  in  Florida  likewise ;  and  all  that  is  left  for  a  poor 
priest  like  me  is  to  return  to  Spain,  and  see  whether  the  pious 
clemency  of  his  Majesty,  and  of  the  universal  Father,  may  not 
be  willing  to  grant  some  small  relief  or  bounty  to  the  poor  of 
Mary — perhaps — (for  who  knows  T)  to  translate  to  a  sphere  of 
more  peaceful  labour  one  who  is  now  old,  Sefiors,  and  weary 
with  many  toils — Tita !  fill  our  glasses.  I  have  saved  some- 
what— as  you  may  have  done,  Sefiors,  from  the  general  wreck ; 
and  for  the  flock,  when  I  am  no  more,  illustrious  Sefiors, 
Heaven's  mercies  are  infinite ;  new  cities  will  rise  from  the 
ashes  of  the  old,  new  mines  pour  forth  their  treasures  into  the 
sanctified  laps  of  the  faithful,  and  new  Indians  flock  toward  the 
life-giving  standard  of  the  Cross,  to  put  on  the  easy  yoke  and 
light  burden  of  the  Church,  and — 

"  And  where  shall  I  be  then  1  Ah,  where  ?  Fain  would  I 
rest,  and  fain  depart.  Tita  !  sling  my  hammock.  Sefiors,  you 
will  excuse  age  and  infirmities.  Fray  Gerundio,  go  to  bed  ! " 

And  the  Dons  rose  to  depart,  while  the  bishop  went  on 
maundering, — 

"  Farewell !  Life  is  short.  Ah  !  we  shall  meet  in  heaven 
at  last.  And  there  are  really  no  more  pearls  1" 

"  Not  a  frail ;  nor  gold  either,"  said  the  intendant. 

"  Ah,  well !  Better  a  dinner  of  herbs  where  love  is,  than — 
Tita  !" 

"  My  breviary — ah  !  Man's  gratitude  is  short-lived,  I  had 
hoped you  have  seen  nothing  of  the  Sefiora  Bovadilla  V 


464  HOW  THEY  TOOK  f,  HAP. 

"  No." 

"Ah  !  she  promised  :  —  but  no  matter — a  little  trifle  as  a 
keepsake — a  gold  cross,  or  an  emerald  ring,  or  what  not — I  ti  >r 
get  And  what  have  I  to  do  with  worldly  wealth! — Ah! 
Tita  !  bring  me  the  casket" 

And  when  his  guests  were  gone,  the  old  man  began 
mumbling  prayers  out  of  Ids  breviary,  and  fingering  over  jewels 
and  gold,  with  the  dull  greedy  eyes  of  covetous  old  age. 

"  Ah ! — it  may  buy  the  red  hat  yet ! — Omnia  Roma;  venalia  ! 
Put  it  by,  Tita,  and  do  not  look  at  it  too  much,  child.  Enter 
not  into  temptation.  The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil ; 
and  Heaven,  in  love  for  the  Indian,  has  made  him  poor  in  this 
world,  that  he  may  be  rich  in  faith.  Ah  ! — Ugh  ! — So  !" 

And  the  old  miser  clambered  into  his  hammock.  Tita  drew 
the  mosquito  net  over  him,  wrapt  another  round  her  own  head, 
and  slept,  or  seemed  to  sleep ;  for  she  coiled  herself  up  upon 
the  floor,  and  master  and  slave  soon  snored  a  merry  bass  to  the 
treble  of  the  mosquitoes. 

It  was  long  past  midnight,  and  the  moon  was  down.  The 
sentinels,  who  had  tramped  and  challenged  overhead  till  they 
thought  their  officers  were  sound  asleep,  had  slipped  out  of  the 
unwholesome  rays  of  the  planet  to  seek  that  health  and  peace 
which  they  considered  their  right,  and  slept  as  soundly  as  the 
bishop's  self. 

Two  long  lines  glided  out  from  behind  the  isolated  rocks  of 
the  Morro  Grande,  which  bounded  the  bay  some  five  hundred 
yards  astern  of  the  galleon.  They  were  almost  invisible  on  the 
glittering  surface  of  the  water,  being  perfectly  white ;  and,  had 
a  sentinel  been  looking  out,  he  could  only  have  descried  them 
by  the  phosphorescent  flashes  along  their  sides. 

Now  the  bishop  had  awoke,  and  turned  himself  over  un- 
easily; for  the  wine  was  dying  out  within  him,  and  his 
shoulders  had  slipped  down,  and  his  heels  up,  and  his  head 
ached  !  so  he  sat  upright  in  his  hammock,  looked  out  upon  the 
bay,  and  called  Tita. 

"  Put  another  pillow  under  my  head,  child  !  What  is  thatl 
a  fish  V 

Tita  looked.  She  did  not  think  it  was  a  fish  :  but  she  did 
not  choose  to  say  so ;  for  it  might  have  produced  an  argument, 
and  she  had  her  reasons  for  not  keeping  his  holiness  awake. 

The  bishop  looked  again ;  settled  that  it  must  be  a  white 
whale,  or  shark,  or  other  monster  of  the  deep ;  crossed  himself, 
prayed  for  a  safe  voyage,  and  snored  once  more. 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  465 

Presently  the  cabin-door  opened  gently,  and  the  head  of  the 
Sefior  Intendant  appeared. 

Tita  sat  up;  and  then  began  crawling  like  a  snake  along  the 
floor,  among  the  chairs  and  tables,  by  the  light  of  the  cabin  lamp. 

"  Is  he  asleep  V 

"  Yes  :  but  the  casket  is  under  his  head." 

"  Curse  him  !     How  shall  we  take  it  1" 

"  I  brought  him  a  fresh  pillow  half-an-hour  ago  ;  I  hung  his 
hammock  wrong  on  purpose  that  he  might  want  one.  I  thought 
to  slip  the  box  away  as  I  did  it ;  but  the  old  ox  nursed  it  in 
both  hands  all  the  while." 

"  What  shall  we  do,  in  the  name  of  all  the  fiends'?  She  sails 
to-morrow  morning,  and  then  all  is  lost." 

Tita  showed  her  white  teeth,  and  touched  the  dagger  which 
hung  by  the  intendant's  side. 

"  I  dare  not !"  said  the  rascal,  with  a  shudder. 

"I  dare!"  said  she.  "He  whipt  my  mother,  because  she 
would  not  give  me  up  to  him  to  be  taught  in  his  schools,  when 
she  went  to  the  mines.  And  she  went  to  the  mines,  and  died 
there  in  three  months.  I  saw  her  go,  with  a  chain  round  her 
neck ;  but  she  never  came  back  again.  Yes ;  I  dare  kill  him  ! 
I  will  kiU  him!  I  will!" 

The  Sefior  felt  his  mind  much  relieved.  He  had  no  wish, 
of  course,  to  commit  the  murder  himself;  for  he  was  a  good 
Catholic,  and  feared  the  devil.  But  Tita  was  an  Indian,  and 
her  being  lost  did  not  matter  so  much.  Indians'  souls  were 
cheap,  like  their  bodies.  So  he  answered,  "But  we  shall  be 
discovered ! " 

"  I  will  leap  out  of  the  window  with  the  casket,  and  swim 
ashore.  They  will  never  suspect  you,  and  they  will  fancy  I  am 
drowned." 

"  The  sharks  may  seize  you,  Tita.  You  had  better  give  me 
the  casket." 

Tita  smiled.  "You  would  not  like  to  lose  that,  eh?  though 
you  care  little  about  losing  me.  And  yet  you  told  me  that  you 
loved  me ! " 

"  And  I  do  love  you,  Tita !  light  of  my  eyes  !  life  of  my 
heart !  I  swear,  by  all  the  saints,  I  love  you.  I  will  marry 
you,  I  swear  I  will — I  will  swear  on  the  crucifix,  if  you  like  ! " 

"  Swear,  then,  or  I  do  not  give  you  the  casket,"  said  she, 
holding  out  the  little  crucifix  round  her  neck,  and  devouring  him 
with  the  wild  eyes  of  passionate  unreasoning  tropic  love. 

He  swore,  trembling,  and  deadly  pale. 
2  H 


•JOG  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  XXVL 

"  Give  me  your  dagger." 

"  No,  not  mine.  It  may  be  found.  I  shall  be  suspected. 
"What  it'  my  sheath  were  seen  to  be  empty?" 

"  Your  kuife  will  do.     His  throat  is  soft  enough." 

And  she  glided  stealthily  as  a  cat  toward  the  hammock, 
while  her  cowardly  companion  stood  shivering  at  the  other  end 
i-f  the  cabin,  and  turned  his  back  to  her,  that  he  might  not  see 
the  deed. 

He  stood  waiting,  one  minute — two — fivel  Was  it  an  hour, 
rather?  A  cold  sweat  bathed  his  limbs;  the  blood  beat  so 
fiercely  within  his  temples,  that  his  head  rang  again.  Was  that 
a  death-bell  tolling  ?  No ;  it  was  the  pulses  of  his  brain.  Im- 
possible, surely,  a  death-bell  Whence  could  it  come  ? 

There  was  a  struggle — ah  !  she  was  about  it  now ;  a  stifled 
cry — Ah  !  he  had  dreaded  that  most  of  all,  to  hear  the  old  man 
cry.  Would  there  be  much  blood  ?  He  hoped  not.  Another 
struggle,  and  Tita's  voice,  apparently  muffled,  called  for  help. 

"  I  cannot  help  you.  Mother  of  Mercies  !  I  dare  not  help 
you!"  hissed  he.  "She-devil!  you  have  begun  it,  and  you 
must  finish  it  yourself!" 

A  heavy  arm  from  behind  clasped  his  throat.  The  bishop 
had  broken  loose  from  her  and  seized  him !  Or  was  it  his  ghost? 
or  a  fiend  come  to  drag  him  down  to  the  pit  ?  And  forgetting 
all  but  mere  wild  terror,  he  opened  his  lips  for  a  scream,  which 
would  have  wakened  every  soul  on  board.  But  a  handkerchief 
was  thrust  into  his  mouth ;  and  in  another  minute  he  found 
himself  bound  hand  and  foot,  and  laid  upon  the  table  by  a 
gigantic  enemy.  The  cabin  was  full  of  armed  men,  two  of 
whom  were  lashing  up  the  bishop  in  his  hammock ;  two  more 
had  seized  Tita ;  and  more  were  clambering  up  into  the  stern- 
gallery  beyond,  wild  figures,  with  bright  blades  and  armour 
gleaming  in  the  starlight. 

"Now,  Will,"  whispered  the  giant  who  had  seized  him, 
"  forward  and  clap  the  fore-hatches  on ;  and  shout  Fire  !  with 
all  your  might.  Girl !  murderess !  your  life  is  in  my  hands. 
Tell  me  where  the  commander  sleeps,  and  I  pardon  you." 

Tita  looked  up  at  the  huge  speaker,  and  obeyed  in  silence. 
The  intendant  heard  him  enter  the  colonel's  cabin,  and  then  a 
short  scuffle,  and  silence  for  a  moment. 

But  only  for  a  moment;  for  already  the  alarm  had  been 
given,  and  mad  confusion  reigned  through  every  deck.  Amyas 
(for  it  was  none  other)  had  already  gained  the  poop;  the  sentinels 
were  gagged  and  bound;  and  every  half-naked  wretch  who  came 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  467 

trembling  up  on  deck  in  his  shirt  by  the  main  hatchway,  calling 
one,  "Fire!"  another,  "Wreck!"  and  another,  "Treason!" 
was  hurled  into  the  scuppers,  and  there  secured. 

"Lower  away  that  boat!"  shouted  Amyas  in  Spanish  to 
his  first  batch  of  prisoners. 

The  men,  unarmed  and  naked,  could  but  obey. 

"Now  then,  jump  in.  Here,  hand  them  to  the  gangway 
as  they  come  up." 

It  was  done ;  and  as  each  appeared  he  was  kicked  to  the 
scuppers,  and  bundled  down  over  the  side. 

"  She's  full.  Cast  loose  now  and  off  with  you.  If  you  try 
to  board  again  we'll  sink  you." 

"Fire!  fire!"  shouted  Gary,  forward.  "Up  the  main 
hatchway  for  your  lives  !" 

The  ruse  succeeded  utterly;  and  before  half-an-hour  was 
over,  all  the  ship's  boats  which  could  be  lowered  were  filled 
with  Spaniards  in  their  shirts,  getting  ashore  as  best  they  could. 

"  Here  is  a  new  sort  of  camisado,"  quoth  Gary.  "  The  last 
Spanish  one  I  saw  was  at  the  sortie  from  Smerwick  :  but  this  is 
somewhat  more  prosperous  than  that." 

"Get  the  main  and  foresail  up,  Will!"  said  Amyas,  "cut 
the  cable ;  and  we  will  plume  the  quarry  as  we  fly." 

"  Spoken  like  a  good  falconer.  Heaven  grant  that  this  big 
woodcock  may  carry  a  good  trail  inside  !" 

"  I'll  warrant  her  for  that,"  said  Jack  Brimblecombe.  "  She 
floats  so  low." 

"  Much  of  your  build,  too,  Jack.  By  the  by,  where  is  the 
commander  V 

Alas !  Don  Pedro,  forgotten  in  the  bustle,  had  been  lying 
on  the  deck  in  his  shirt,  helplessly  bound,  exhausting  that  part 
of  his  vocabulary  which  related  to  the  unseen  world.  Which 
most  discourteous  act  seemed  at  first  likely  to  be  somewhat 
heavily  avenged  on  Amyas ;  for  as  he  spoke,  a  couple  of  caliver- 
shots,  fired  from  under  the  poop,  passed  "ping"  "ping"  by  his 
ears,  and  Gary  clapped  his  hand  to  his  side. 

"Hurt,  Will?" 

"A  pinch,  old  lad — Look  out,  or  we  are  'alien  verloren' 
after  all,  as  the  Flemings  say." 

And  as  he  spoke,  a  rush  forward  on  the  poop  drove  two  of 
their  best  men  down  the  ladder  into  the  waist,  where  Amyas 
stood. 

"  Killed  ?"  asked  he,  as  he  picked  one  up,  who  had  fallen 
head  over  heels. 


468  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

"  Sound  as  a  bell,  sir  :  but  they  Gentiles  has  got  hold  of  the 
lirt  anus,  and  set  the  captain  free." 

And  rubbing  the  back  of  his  head  for  a  minute,  he  jumped 
up  the  ladder  again,  shouting — 

"Have  at  ye,  idolatrous  pagans!  Have  at  ye,  Satan's 
spawn  ! " 

Amyas  jumped  up  after  him,  shouting  to  all  hands  to  follow ; 
for  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost. 

Out  of  the  windows  of  the  poop,  which  looked  on  the  main- 
deck,  a  galling  fire  had  been  opened,  and  he  could  not  afford  to 
lose  men ;  for,  as  far  as  he  knew,  the  Spaniards  left  on  board 
might  still  far  outnumber  the  English ;  so  up  he  sprang  on  the 
poop,  followed  by  a  dozen  men,  and  there  began  a  very  heavy 
fight  between  two  parties  of  valiant  warriors,  who  easily  knew 
each  other  apart  by  the  peculiar  fashion  of  their  armour.  For 
the  Spaniards  fought  in  their  shirts,  and  in  no  other  garments : 
but  the  English  in  all  other  manner  of  garments,  tag,  rag,  and 
bobtail ;  and  yet  had  never  a  shirt  between  them. 

The  rest  of  the  English  made  a  rush,  of  course,  to  get  upon 
the  poop,  seeing  that  the  Spaniards  could  not  shoot  them 
through  the  deck ;  but  the  fire  from  the  windows  was  so  hot, 
that  although  they  dodged  behind  masts,  spars,  and  every  pos- 
sible shelter,  one  or  two  dropped ;  and  Jack  Brimblecombe  and 
Yeo  took  on  themselves  to  call  a  retreat,  and  with  about  a  dozen 
men,  got  back,  and  held  a  council  of  war. 

What  was  to  be  done  1  Their  arquebuses  were  of  little  use ; 
for  the  Spaniards  were  behind  a  strong  bulkhead.  There  were 
cannon  :  but  where  was  powder  or  shot  1  The  boats,  encouraged 
by  the  clamour  on  deck,  were  paddling  alongside  again.  Yeo 
rushed  round  and  round,  probing  every  gun  with  his  sword. 

"  Here's  a  patararo  loaded  !     Now  for  a  match,  lads." 

Luckily  one  of  the  English  had  kept  his  match  alight 
during  the  scuffle. 

"  Thanks  be  !  Help  me  to  unship  the  gun — the  mast's  in 
the  way  here." 

The  patararo,  or  brass  swivel,  was  unshipped. 

"Steady,  lads,  and  keep  it  level,  or  you'll  shake  out  the 
priming.  Ship  it  here ;  turn  out  that  one,  and  heave  it  into 
that  boat,  if  they  come  alongside.  Steady  now — so !  Rum- 
mage about,  and  find  me  a  bolt  or  two,  a  marlin-spike,  anything. 
Quick,  or  the  Captain  will  be  over-mastered  yet." 

Missiles  were  found — odds  and  ends — and  crammed  into  the 
swivel  up  to  the  muzzle  :  and,  in  another  minute,  it*  "  cargo  of 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  469 

notions  "  was  crashing  into  the  poop-windows,  silencing  the  fire 
from  thence  effectually  enough  for  the  time. 

"Now,  then,  a  rash  forward,  and  right  in  along  the  deck !" 
shouted  Yeo ;  and  the  whole  party  charged  through  the  cabin- 
doors,  which  their  shot  had  burst  open,  and  hewed  their  way 
from  room  to  room. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Spaniards  above  had  fought  fiercely  : 
but,  in  spite  of  superior  numbers,  they  had  gradually  given 
back  before  the  "  demoniacal  possession  of  those  blasphemous 
heretics,  who  fought,  not  like  men,  but  like  furies  from  the 
pit."  And  by  the  time  that  Brimblecombe  and  Yeo  shouted 
from  the  stern-gallery  below  that  the  quarter-deck  was  won,  few 
on  either  side  but  had  their  shrewd  scratch  to  show. 

"  Yield,  Sefior ! "  shouted  Amyas  to  the  commander,  who 
had  been  fighting  like  a  lion,  back  to  back  with  the  captain  of 
mariners. 

"  Never !  You  have  bound  me,  and  insulted  me !  Your 
blood  or  mine  must  wipe  out  the  stain  !" 

And  he  rushed  on  Amyas.  There  was  a  few  moments' 
heavy  fence  between  them ;  and  then  Amyas  cut  right  at  his 
head.  But  as  he  raised  his  arm,  the  Spaniard's  blade  slipped 
along  his  ribs,  and  snapped  against  the  point  of  his  shoulder- 
blade.  An  inch  more  to  the  left,  and  it  would  have  been 
through  his  heart.  The  blow  fell,  nevertheless,  and  the  com- 
mandant fell  with  it,  stunned  by  the  flat  of  the  sword,  but  not 
wounded  ;  for  Amyas's  hand  had  turned,  as  he  winced  from  his 
wound.  But  the  sea-captain,  seeing  Amyas  stagger,  sprang  at 
him,  and,  seizing  him  by  the  wrist,  ere  he  could  raise  his  sword 
again,  shortened  his  weapon  to  run  him  through.  Amyas  made 
a  grasp  at  his  wrist  in  return,  but,  between  his  faintness  and 
the  darkness,  missed  it. — Another  moment,  and  all  would  have 
been  over ! 

A  bright  blade  flashed  close  past  Amyas's  ear;  the  sea- 
captain's  grasp  loosened,  and  he  dropped  a  corpse ;  while  over 
him,  like  an  angry  lioness  above  her  prey,  stood  Ayacanora,  her 
long  hair  floating  in  the  wind,  her  dagger  raised  aloft,  as  she 
looked  round,  challenging  all  and  every  one  to  approach. 

"Are  you  hurt?"  panted  she. 

"  A  scratch,  child. — What  do  you  do  here  ?  Go  back,  go 
back." 

Ayacanora  slipped  back  like  a  scolded  child,  and  vanished  in 
the  darkness. 

The  battle  was  over.      The  Spaniards,  seeing  their  com- 


470  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [OHAP.  xxvi. 

manders  fall,  laid  down  ilu-ir  arms,  and  cried  for  quarter.  It 
was  given;  the  poor  fellows  were  tied  together,  two  and  t\\<i. 
and  seated  in  a  row  on  the  deck  ;  the  commandant,  sorely  bruised, 
yielded  himself  perforce ;  and  the  galleon  was  taken. 

Amyas  hurried  forward  to  get  the  sails  set.  As  he  went  down 
the  poop-ladder,  there  was  some  one  sitting  on  the  lowest  step. 

"  Who  is  here — wounded  ? " 

"  I  am  not  wounded,"  said  a  woman's  voice,  low,  and  stifled 
with  sobs. 

It  was  Ayacanora.  She  rose,  and  let  him  pass.  He  saw 
that  her  face  was  bright  with  tears ;  but  he  hurried  on,  never- 
theless. 

"  Perhaps  I  did  speak  a  little  hastily  to  her,  considering  she 
saved  my  life ;  but  what  a  brimstone  it  is !  Mary  Ambree  in  a 
dark  skin  !  Now  then,  lads  !  Get  the  Santa  F&  gold  up  out 
of  the  canoes,  and  then  we  will  put  her  head  to  the  north-east, 
and  away  for  Old  England.  Mr.  Brimblecombe  !  don't  say  that 
Eastward-no  don't  bring  luck  this  time." 

It  was  impossible,  till  morning  dawned,  either  to  get 
matters  into  any  order,  or  to  overhaul  the  prize  they  had  taken ; 
and  many  of  the  men  were  so  much  exhausted  that  they  fell 
fast  asleep  on  the  deck  ere  the  surgeon  had  time  to  dress  tln-ir 
wounds.  However,  Amyas  contrived,  when  once  the  ship  was 
leaping  merrily,  close-hauled  against  a  fresh  land-breeze,  to 
count  his  little  flock,  and  found  out  of  the  forty-four  but  six 
seriously  wounded,  and  none  killed.  However,  their  working 
numbers  were  now  reduced  to  thirty-eight,  beside  the  four 
negroes,  a  scanty  crew  enough  to  take  home  such  a  ship  to 
England. 

After  awhile,  up  came  Jack  Brimblecombe  on  deck,  a  bottle 
in  his  hand. 

"  Lads,  a  prize  ! " 

"  Well,  we  know  that  already." 

"  Nay,  but — look  hither,  and  laid  in  ice,  too,  as  I  live,  the 
luxurious  dogs  !  But  I  had  to  fight  for  it,  I  had.  For  when  I 
went  down  into  the  state  cabin,  after  I  had  seen  to  the  wounded, 
whom  should  I  find  loose  but  that  Indian  lass,  who  had  just 
unbound  the  fellow  you  caught " 

"  Ah  !  those  two,  I  believe,  were  going  to  murder  the  old 
man  in  the  hammock,  if  we  had  not  come  in  the  nick  of  time. 
What  have  you  done  with  them  1 " 

"  Why,  the  Spaniard  ran  when  he  saw  me,  and  got  into  a 
cabin ;  but  the  woman,  instead  of  running,  came  at  me  with  a 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  471 

knife,  and  chased  me  round  the  table  like  a  very  cat-a-mountain. 
So  I  ducked  under  the  old  man's  hammock,  and  out  into  the 
gallery ;  and  when  I  thought  the  coast  was  clear,  back  again  I 
came,  and  stumbled  over  this.  So  I  just  picked  it  up,  and  ran 
on  deck  with  my  tail  between  my  legs,  for  I  expected  verily 
to  have  the  black  woman's  knife  between  my  ribs  out  of  some 
dark  corner." 

"  Well  done,  Jack  !  Let's  have  the  wine,  nevertheless,  and 
then  down  to  set  a  guard  on  the  cabin -doors  for  fear  of 
plundering." 

"  Better  go  down,  and  see  that  nothing  is  thrown  overboard 
by  Spaniards.  As  for  plundering,  I  will  settle  that." 

And  Amyas  walked  forward  among  the  men. 

"  Muster  the  men,  boatswain,  and  count  them." 

"All  here,  sir,  but  the  six  poor  fellows  who  are  laid 
forward." 

"Now,  my  men,"  said  Amyas,  "for  three  years  you  and  I 
have  wandered  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  seeking  our  fortune, 
and  we  have  found  it  at  last,  thanks  be  to  God  !  Now,  what 
was  our  promise  and  vow  which  we  made  to  God  beneath  the 
tree  of  Guayra,  if  He  should  grant  us  good  fortune,  and  bring 
us  home  again  with  a  prize  ?  Was  it  not,  that  the  dead  should 
share  with  the  living ;  and  that  every  man's  portion,  if  he  fell, 
should  go  to  his  widow  or  his  orphans,  or  if  he  had  none,  to  his 
parents  1 " 

"  It  was,  sir,"  said  Yeo,  "  and  I  trust  that  the  Lord  will 
give  these  men  grace  to  keep  their  vow.  They  have  seen 
enough  of  His  providences  by  this  time  to  fear  Him." 

"  I  doubt  them  not ;  but  I  remind  them  of  it.  The  Lord 
has  put  into  our  hands  a  rich  prize ;  and  what  with  the  gold 
which  we  have  already,  we  are  well  paid  for  all  our  labours.  Let 
us  thank  Him  with  fervent  hearts  as  soon  as  the  sun  rises ;  and 
in  the  meanwhile,  remember  all,  that  whosoever  plunders  on 
his  private  account,  robs  not  the  adventurers  merely,  but  the 
orphan  and  the  widow,  which  is  to  rob  God ;  and  makes  him- 
self partaker  of  Achan's  curse,  who  hid  the  wedge  of  gold, 
and  brought  down  God's  anger  on  the  whole  army  of  Israel. 
For  me,  lest  you  should  think  me  covetous,  I  could  claim  my 
brother's  share ;  but  I  hereby  give  it  up  freely  into  the  common 
stock,  for  the  use  of  the  whole  ship's  crew,  who  have  stood  by 
me  through  weal  and  woe,  as  men  never  stood  before,  as  I 
believe,  by  any  captain.  So,  now  to  prayers,  lads,  and  then  to 
eat  our  breakfast." 


472  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxvi. 

So,  to  the  Spaniards'  surprise  (who  most  of  thorn  believed 
that  the  English  were  atheists),  to  prayers  they  went. 

Alter  which  Brimblecombe  contrived  to  inspire  the  Mark 
cook  and  the  Portuguese  steward  with  such  energy  that,  by 
seven  o'clock,  the  latter  worthy  appeared  on  deck,  and,  with 
profound  reverences,  announced  to  "The  most  excellent  and 
heroical  Sefior  Adelantado  Captain  Englishman,"  that  breakfast 
was  ready  in  the  state-cabin. 

"You  will  do  us  the  honour  of  accompanying  us  as  our 
guest,  sir,  or  our  host,  if  you  prefer  the  title,"  said  Amyas  to 
the  Commandant,  who  stood  by. 

"  Pardon,  Sefior :  but  honour  forbids  me  to  eat  with  one 
who  has  offered  to  me  the  indelible  insult  of  bonds." 

"  Oh  !"  said  Amyas,  taking  off  his  hat,  "  then  pray  accept  on 
the  spot  my  humble  apologies  for  all  which  has  passed,  and  my 
assurances  that  the  indignities  which  you  have  unfortunately 
en i lured,  were  owing  altogether  to  the  necessities  of  war,  and 
not  to  any  wish  to  hurt  the  feelings  of  so  valiant  a  soldier  and 
gentleman." 

"  It  is  enough,  Senor,"  said  the  commandant,  bowing  and 
shrugging  his  shoulders — for,  indeed,  he  too  was  very  hungry ; 
while  Gary  whispered  to  Amyas — 

"  You  will  make  a  courtier,  yet,  old  lad." 

"I  am  not  in  jesting  humour,  Will:  my  mind  sadly  mis- 
gives me  that  we  shall  hear  black  news,  and  have,  perhaps,  to 
do  a  black  deed  yet,  on  board  here.  Senor,  I  follow  you." 

So  they  went  down,  and  found  the  bishop,  who  was  by  this 
time  unbound,  seated  in  a  corner  of  the  cabin,  his  hands  fallen 
on  his  knees,  his  eyes  staring  on  vacancy,  while  the  two  priests 
stood  as  close  against  the  wall  as  they  could  squeeze  themselves, 
keeping  up  a  ceaseless  mutter  of  prayers. 

"  Your  holiness  will  breakfast  with  us,  of  course ;  and  these 
two  frocked  gentlemen  likewise.  I  see  no  reason  for  refusing 
them  all  hospitality,  as  yet" 

There  was  a  marked  emphasis  on  the  last  two  words,  which 
made  both  monks  wince. 

"  Our  chaplain  will  attend  to  you,  gentlemen.  His  lordship 
the  bishop  will  do  me  the  honour  of  sitting  next  to  me." 

The  bishop  seemed  to  revive  slowly  as  he  snuffed  the  savoury 
steam ;  and  at  last,  rising  mechanically,  subsided  into  the  chair 
which  Amyas  offered  him  on  his  left,  while  the  commandant 
sat  on  his  right. 

"  A  little  of  this  kid,  my  Lord  1     No — ah — Friday,  I  recol- 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  473 

lect.  Some  of  that  turtle-fin,  then.  Will,  serve  his  lordship ; 
pass  the  cassava-bread  up,  Jack  !  Senor  Commandant !  a  glass 
of  wine  1  You  need  it  after  your  valiant  toils.  To  the  health 
of  all  brave  soldiers — and  a  toast  from  your  own  Spanish  pro- 
verb, '  To-day  to  me,  to-morrow  to  thee  ! '  " 

"  I  drink  it,  brave  Senor.  Your  courtesy  shows  you  the 
worthy  countryman  of  General  Drake,  and  his  brave  lieutenant." 

"  Drake  !  Did  you  know  him,  Senor  f  asked  all  the  Eng- 
lishmen at  once. 

"Too  well,  too  well "  and  he  would  have  continued; 

but  the  bishop  burst  out — 

"  Ah,  Senor  Commandant !  that  name  again  !  Have  you 

no  mercy  ?  To  sit  between  another  pair  of ,  and  my  own 

wine,  too  !  Ugh,  ugh  !" 

The  old  gentleman,  whose  mouth  had  been  full  of  turtle  the 
whole  time,  burst  into  a  violent  fit  of  coughing,  and  was  only 
saved  from  apoplexy  by  Gary's  patting  him  on  the  back. 

"  Ugh,  ugh  !  The  tender  mercies  of  the  wicked  are  cruel, 
and  their  precious  balms.  Ah,  Senor  Lieutenant  Englishman  ! 
May  I  ask  you  to  pass  those  limes  1 — Ah  !  what  is  turtle  with- 
out lime  1 — Even  as  a  fat  old  man  without  money  !  Nudus  in- 
travi,  nudus  exeo — ah  !" 

"But  what  of  Drake?" 

"Do  you  not  know,  sir,  that  he  and  his  fleet,  only  last  year, 
swept  the  whole  of  this  coast,  and  took,  with  shame  I  confess  it, 

Carthagena,  San  Domingo,  St.  Augustine,  and 1  see  you  are 

too  courteous,  Senors,  to  express  before  me  what  you  have  a  right 
to  feel.  But  whence  come  you,  sir  ?  From  the  skies,  or  the 
depth  of  the  sea  1" 

"Art-magic,  art-magic  !"  moaned  the  bishop. 

"  Your  holiness  !  It  is  scarcely  prudent  to  speak  thus  here," 
said  the  commandant,  who  was  nevertheless  much  of  the  same 
opinion. 

"Why  you  said  so  yourself,  last  night,  Seiior,  about  the 
taking  of  Carthagena." 

The  commandant  blushed,  and  stammered  out  somewhat — 
"  That  it  was  excusable  in  him,  if  he  had  said  in  jest,  that  so  pro- 
digious and  curious  a  valour  had  not  sprung  from  mortal  source." 

"  No  more  it  did,  Senor,"  said  Jack  Brimblecombe  stoutly  : 
"  but  from  Him  who  taught  our  '  hands  to  war;  and  our  fingers 
to  fight.'" 

The  commandant  bowed  stiffly.  "  You  will  excuse  me,  Sir 
Preacher ;  but  I  am  a  Catholic,  and  hold  the  cause  of  my  king 


474  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAT.  xxvi. 

to  be  alone  the  cause  of  Heaven.  But,  Senor  Captain,  how 
came  you  thitln-r,  it'  I  may  ask?  That  y.>u  mv.|c<l  no  art-magic 
after  you  came  on  tmard,  I,  alas !  can  testify  hut  too  well :  but 
what  spirit — whether  good  or  evil,  I  ask  not — brought  you  on 
board,  and  whence  ?  Where  is  your  ship  1  I  thought  that  all 
Drake's  squadron  had  left  six  months  ago." 

"  Our  ship,  Senor,  has  lain  this  three  years  rotting  on  the 
coast  near  Cape  Codera." 

"  Ah  !  we  heard  of  that  bold  adventure — but  we  thought 
you  all  lost  in  the  interior." 

"You  didl  Can  you  tell  me,  then,  where  the  SeSor 
Governor  of  La  Guayra  may  be  now  ?" 

"  The  Senor  Don  Guzman  de  Soto,"  said  the  commandant, 
in  a  somewhat  constrained  tone,  "  is  said  to  be  at  present  in 
Spain,  having  thrown  up  his  office  in  consequence  of  domestic 
matters,  of  which  I  have  not  the  honour  of  knowing  anything." 

Amyas  longed  to  ask  more  :  but  he  knew  that  the  well-bred 
Spaniard  would  tell  him  nothing  which  concerned  another  man's 
wife  ;  and  went  on. 

"What  befell  us  after,  I  tell  you  frankly." 

And  Amyas  told  his  story,  from  the  landing  at  Guayra  to 
the  passage  down  the  Magdalena.  The  commandant  lifted  up 
his  hands. 

"  Were  it  not  forbidden  to  me,  as  a  Catholic,  most  invincible 
Sefior,  I  should  say  that  the  Divine  protection  has  indeed " 

"  Ah,"  said  one  of  the  friars,  "  that  you  could  be  brought, 
Seuors,  to  render  thanks  for  your  miraculous  preservation  to  her 
to  whom  alone  it  is  due,  Mary,  the  fount  of  mercies  !" 

"We  have  done  well  enough  without  her  as  yet,"  said 
Amyas,  bluntly. 

"  The  Lord  raised  up  Nebuchadnezzar  of  old  to  punish  the 
sins  of  the  Jewish  Church ;  and  He  has  raised  up  these  men  to 
punish  ours  ! "  said  Fray  Gerundio. 

"  But  Nebuchadnezzar  fell,  and  so  may  they,"  growled  the 
other  to  himself.  Jack  overheard  him. 

"I  say,  my  Lord  Bishop,"  called  he  from  the  other  end  <>f 
the  table.  "  It  is  our  English  custom  to  let  our  guests  be  as 
rude  as  they  like  ;  but,  perhaps  your  Lordship  will  hint  to  these 
two  friars,  that  if  they  wish  to  keep  whole  skins,  they  will  keep 
civil  tongues." 

"  Be  silent,  asses!  mules  !"  shouted  the  bishop,  whose  spirits 
were  improving  over  the  wine ;  "  who  are  you,  that  you  cannot 
cat  dirt  as  well  as  your  betters  ?" 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  475 

"  Well  spoken,  my  Lord.  Here's  the  health  of  our  saintly 
and  venerable  guest,"  said  Gary  :  while  the  commandant  whis- 
pered to  Amyas,  "  Fat  old  tyrant !  I  hope  you  have  found  his 
money — for  I  am  sure  he  has  some  on  board,  and  I  should  be 
loath  that  you  lost  the  advantage  of  it." 

"  I  shall  have  to  say  a  few  words  to  you  about  that  money 
this  morning,  Commandant :  by  the  by,  they  had  better  be  said 
now.  My  Lord  Bishop,  do  you  know  that  had  we  not  taken 
this  ship  when  we  did,  you  had  lost  not  merely  money,  as  you 
have  now,  but  life  itself?" 

"  Money?  I  had  none  to  lose  !  Life  ? — what  do  you  mean  ?" 
asked  the  bishop,  turning  very  pale. 

"  This,  sir.  That  it  ill  befits  one  to  lie,  whose  throat  has 
been  saved  from  the  assassin's  knife  but  four  hours  since. 
When  we  entered  the  stern-gallery,  we  found  two  persons,  now 
on  board  this  ship,  in  the  very  act,  sir,  and  article,  of  cutting 
your  sinful  throat,  that  they  might  rob  you  of  the  casket  which 
lay  beneath  your  pillow.  A  moment  more,  and  you  were  dead. 
We  seized  and  bound  them,  and  so  saved  your  life.  Is  that 
plain,  sir?" 

The  bishop  looked  steadfastly  and  stupidly  into  Amyas's 
face,  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  and  gradually  sank  back  in  his  chair, 
dropping  the  glass  from  his  hand. 

"He  is  in  a  fit !  Call  in  the  surgeon!  KunP'and  up 
jumped  kind-hearted  Jack,  and  brought  in  the  surgeon  of  the 
galleon. 

"  Is  this  possible,  Senor  ?"  asked  the  commandant. 

"  It  is  true.  Door,  there  !  Evans  !  go  and.  bring  in  that 
rascal  whom  we  left  bound  in  his  cabin  ! " 

Evans  went,  and  the  commandant  continued — 

"  But  the  stern-gallery  ?  How,  in  the  name  of  all  witches 
and  miracles,  came  your  valour  thither  ?" 

"  Simply  enough,  and  owing  neither  to  witch  nor  miracle. 
The  night  before  last  we  passed  the  mouth  of  the  bay  in  our 
two  canoes,  which  we  had  lashed  together  after  the  fashion  I 
had  seen  in  the  Moluccas,  to  keep  them  afloat  in  the  surf.  We 
had  scraped  the  canoes  bright  the  day  before,  and  rubbed  them 
with  white  clay,  that  they  might  be  invisible  at  night ;  and  so 
we  got  safely  to  the  Morro  Grande,  passing  within  half  a  mile 
of  your  ship." 

"  Oh  !  my  scoundrels  of  sentinels  !" 

"  We  landed  at  the  back  of  the  Morro,  and  lay  there  all 
day,  being  purposed  to  do  that  which,  with  your  pardon,  we 


476  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxvi. 

<  l<>ne.  We  took  our  sails  of  Indian  cloth,  whitened  them 
likewise  \\itli  eliiy  \\liirli  we  h:ul  brought  with  us  from  the  river 
(expecting  to  iind  u  Spanish  ship  as  we  went  along  the  coast, 
and  determined  to  attempt  her,  or  die  with  honour),  and  laid 
them  over  us  on  the  canoes,  paddling  from  underneath  them. 
So  that,  had  your  sentinels  been  awake,  they  would  have  hardly 
made  us  out,  till  we  were  close  on  board.  We  had  provided 
ourselves,  instead  of  ladders,  with  bamboos  rigged  with  cross- 
pieces,  and  a  hook  of  strong  wood  at  the  top  of  each  ;  they  hang 
at  your  stern-gallery  now.  And  the  rest  of  the  tale  I  need  not 
tell  you." 

The  commandant  rose  in  his  courtly  Spanish  way, — 

"  Your  admirable  story,  Seiior,  proves  to  me  how  truly  your 
nation,  while  it  has  yet,  and  I  trust  will  ever  have,  to  dispute 
the  palm  of  valour  with  our  own,  is  famed  throughout  the  world 
for  ingenuity,  and  for  daring  beyond  that  of  mortal  man.  You 
have  succeeded,  valiant  Captain,  because  you  have  deserved  to 
succeed ;  and  it  is  no  shame  to  me  to  succumb  to  enemies,  who 
have  united  the  cunning  of  the  serpent  with  the  valour  of  the 
lion.  Senor,  I  feel  as  proud  of  becoming  your  guest  as  I 
should  have  been  proud,  under  a  happier  star,  of  becoming  your 
host." 

"  You  are,  like  your  nation,  only  too  generous,  Senor.  But 
what  noise  is  that  outside  1  Gary,  go  and  see." 

But  ere  Gary  could  reach  the  door,  it  was  opened ;  and 
Evans  presented  himself  with  a  terrified  face. 

"  Here's  villany,  sir  !  The  Don's  murdered,  and  cold ;  the 
Indian  lass  fled ;  and  as  we  searched  the  ship  for  her,  we  found 
an  Englishwoman,  as  I'm  a  sinful  man  ! — and  a  shocking  sight 
she  is  to  see  !" 

"  An  Englishwoman  ?"  cried  all  three,  springing  forward. 

"  Bring  her  in  !"  said  Amyas,  turning  very  pale  ;  and  as  he 
spoke,  Yeo  and  another  led  into  the  cabin  a  figure  scarcely 
human. 

An  elderly  woman,  dressed  in  the  yellow  "  San  Benito  "  of 
the  Inquisition,  with  ragged  grey  locks  hanging  about  a  counte- 
nance distorted  by  suffering,  and  shrunk  by  famine.  Painfully, 
as  one  unaccustomed  to  the  light,  she  peered  and  blinked  round 
her.  Her  fallen  lip  gave  her  a  half-idiotic  expression  ;  and  yet 
there  was  an  uneasy  twinkle  in  the  eye,  as  of  boundless  terror 
and  suspicion.  She  lifted  up  her  fettered  wrist  to  shade  her 
face ;  and  as  she  did  so,  disclosed  a  line  of  fearful  scars  upon 
her  skinny  arm. 


CHAP,  xxvi.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  477 

"  Look  there,  sirs  !"  said  Yeo,  pointing  to  them  with  a  stern 
smile.  "  Here's  some  of  these  Popish  gentry's  handiwork.  I 
know  well  enough  how  those  marks  came ; "  and  he  pointed  to 
the  similar  scars  on  his  own  wrist. 

The  commandant,  as  well  as  the  Englishmen,  recoiled  with 
horror. 

"  Holy  Virgin !  what  wretch  is  this  on  board  my  ship  1 
Bishop,  is  this  the  prisoner  whom  you  sent  on  board  1" 

The  bishop,  who  had  been  slowly  recovering  his  senses, 
looked  at  her  a  moment ;  and  then  thrusting  his  chair  back, 
crossed  himself,  and  almost  screamed,  "Malefica!  Malefica!  Who 
brought  her  here?  Turn  her  away,  gentlemen ;  turn  her  eye  away; 
she  will  bewitch,  fascinate  " — and  he  began  muttering  prayers. 

Amyas  seized  him  by  the  shoulder,  and  shook  him  on  to 
his  legs. 

"  Swine  !  who  is  this  ?  Wake  up,  coward,  and  tell  me,  or 
I  will  cut  you  piecemeal ! " 

But  ere  the  bishop  could  answer,  the  woman  uttered  a  wild 
shriek,  and  pointing  to  the  taller  of  the  two  monks,  cowered 
behind  Yeo. 

"  He  here  ?"  cried  she  in  broken  Spanish.  "  Take  me 
away  !  I  will  tell  you  no  more.  I  have  told  you  all,  and  lies 
enough  beside.  Oh !  why  is  he  come  again  1  Did  they  not 
say  that  I  should  have  no  more  torments  ?" 

The  monk  turned  pale  :  but  like  a  wild  beast  at  bay,  glared 
firmly  round  on  the  whole  company ;  and  then,  fixing  his  dark 
eyes  full  on  the  woman,  he  bade  her  be  silent  so  sternly,  that 
she  shrank  down  like  a  beaten  hound. 

"Silence,  dog!"  said  Will  Gary,  whose  blood  was  up,  and 
followed  his  words  with  a  blow  on  the  monk's  mouth,  which 
silenced  him  effectually. 

"  Don't  be  afraid,  good  woman,  but  speak  English.  We  are 
all  English  here,  and  Protestants  too.  Tell  us  what  they  have 
done  for  you." 

"Another  trap!  another  trap!"  cried  she,  in  a  strong 
Devonshire  accent.  "  You  be  no  English  !  You  want  to  make 
me  lie  again,  and  then  torment  me.  Oh  !  wretched,  wretched 
that  I  am  !"  cried  she,  bursting  into  tears.  "  Whom  should  I 
trust  1  Not  myself :  no,  nor  God ;  for  I  have  denied  Him  ! 
0  Lord!  OLord!" 

Amyas  stood  silent  with  fear  and  horror ;  some  instinct  told 
him  that  he  was  on  the  point  of  hearing  news  for  which  he 
feared  to  ask.  But  Jack  spoke — 


ITS  HOW  THEY  TOOK  [CHAP.  xxvi. 

"  My  dear  soul !  my  dear  soul !  don't  you  be  afraid ;  and  tin- 
Lord  will  stand  by  you,  if  you  will  but  tell  the  truth.  We  are 
all  Englishmen,  ;md  men  of  Devon,  as  you  seem  to  be  by  your 
speech ;  and  this  ship  is  ours ;  and  the  pope  himself  shan't 
touch  you ' 

"  Devon  1"  she  said  doubtingly;  "Devon!    Whence,  then?" 

"  Bideford  men.  This  is  Mr.  Will  Gary,  to  Clovelly.  If 
you  are  a  Devon  woman,  you've  heard  tell  of  the  Carys,  to  be 
sure." 

The  woman  made  a  rush  forward,  and  threw  hi-r  i.-ttnvil 
arms  round  Will's  neck, — 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Gary,  my  dear  life !  Mr.  Gary !  and  so  you  be ! 
Oh,  dear  soul  alive  !  but  you're  burnt  so  brown,  and  I  be  'most 
blind  with  misery.  Oh,  who  ever  sent  you  here,  my  dear  Mr. 
Will,  then,  to  save  a  poor  wretch  from  the  pit  ?" 

"  Who  on  earth  are  you  1" 

"Lucy  Passmore,  the  white  witch  to  "Welcombe.  Don't 
you  mind  Lucy  Passmore,  as  charmed  your  warts  for  you  when 
you  was  a  boy  ?" 

"  Lucy  Passmore ! "  almost  shrieked  all  three  friends.  "  She 
that  went  off  with " 

"  Yes !  she  that  sold  her  own  soul,  and  persuaded  that  dear 
saint  to  sell  hers ;  she  that  did  the  devil's  work,  and  has  taken 
the  devil's  wages ; — after  this  fashion  ! "  and  she  held  up  her 
scarred  wrists  wildly. 

"Where  is  Dona  de — Rose  Salterne?"  shouted  Will  and 
Jack 

"  Where  is  my  brother  Frank  ?"  shouted  Amyas. 

"Dead,  dead,  dead!" 

"  I  knew  it,"  said  Amyas,  sitting  down  again  calmly. 

"How  did  she  die V 

"  The  Inquisition — he  !"  pointing  to  the  monk  "  Ask  him 
— he  betrayed  her  to  her  death.  And  ask  him !"  pointing  to 
the  bishop ;  "  he  sat  by  her  and  saw  her  die." 

"  Woman,  you  rave ! "  said  the  bishop,  getting  up  with  a 
terrified  air,  and  moving  as  far  as  possible  from  Amyas. 

"  How  did  my  brother  die,  Lucy  1"  asked  Amyas,  still  calmly. 

"Who  be  you,  sir T 

A  gleam  of  hope  flashed  across  Amyas — she  had  not  an- 
swered his  question. 

"  I  am  Amyas  Leigh  of  Burrough.  Do  you  know  aught  of 
my  brother  Frank,  who  was  lost  at  La  Guayra  ?" 

"  Mr.  Amyas  !     Heaven  forgive  me  that  I  did  not  know  the 


CHAP,  xxvi.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  479 

bigness  of  you.  Your  brother,  sir,  died  like  a  gentleman  as 
he  was." 

"  But  how  ?"  gasped  Amyas. 

"  Burned  with  her,  sir  !" 

"  Is  this  true,  sir  1"  said  Amyas,  turning  to  the  bishop,  with 
a  very  quiet  voice. 

"  I,  sir  V  stammered  he,  in  panting  haste.  "  I  had  nothing 
to  do — I  was  compelled  in  my  office  of  bishop  to  be  an  unwill- 
ing spectator — the  secular  arm,  sir;  I  could  not  interfere  with 
that — any  more  than  I  can  with  the  Holy  Office.  I  do  not 
belong  to  it — ask  that  gentleman — sir  !  Saints  and  angels,  sir ! 
what  are  you  going  to  do  V  shrieked  he,  as  Amyas  laid  a  heavy 
hand  upon  his  shoulder,  and  began  to  lead  him  towards  the  door. 

"  Hang  you !"  said  Amyas.  "  If  I  had  been  a  Spaniard  and 
a  priest  like  yourself,  I  should  have  burnt  you  alive." 

"  Hang  me  ?"  shrieked  the  wretched  old  Balaam ;  and  burst 
into  abject  howls  for  mercy. 

"  Take  the  dark  monk,  Yeo,  and  hang  him  too.  Lucy  Pass- 
more,  do  you  know  that  fellow  also  ?" 

"  No,  sir,"  said  Lucy. 

"Lucky  for  you,  Fray  Gerundio,"  said  Will  Gary;  while 
the  good  friar  hid  his  face  in  his  hands,  and  burst  into  tears. 
Lucky  it  was  for  him,  indeed ;  for  he  had  been  a  pitying  spec- 
tator of  the  tragedy.  "  Ah  !"  thought  he,  "if  life  in  this  mad 
and  sinful  world  be  a  reward,  perhaps  this  escape  is  vouchsafed 
to  me  for  having  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  poor  Indian  !" 

But  the  bishop  shrieked  on. 

"  Oh !  not  yet.  An  hour,  only  an  hour !  I  am  not  fit 
to  die." 

"  That  is  no  concern  of  mine,"  said  Amyas.  "  I  only  know 
that  you  are  not  fit  to  live." 

"  Let  us  at  least  make  our  peace  with  God,"  said  the  dark 
monk. 

"  Hound !  if  your  saints  can  really  smuggle  you  up  the 
back-stairs  to  heaven,  they  will  do  it  without  five  minutes'  more 
coaxing  and  flattering." 

Fray  Gerundio  and  the  condemned  man  alike  stopped  their 
ears  at  the  blasphemy. 

"  Oh,  Fray  Gerundio  !"  screamed  the  bishop,  "pray  for  me. 
I  have  treated  you  like  a  beast.  Oh,  Fray,  Fray !" 

"Oh,  my  Lord!  my  Lord!"  said  the  good  man,  as  with 
tears  streaming  down  his  face  he  followed  his  shrieking  and 
struggling  diocesan  up  the  stairs,  "  who  am  I  ?  Ask  no  pardon 


4*0  H"\V  TIII.V  TOOK  [CHAP.  XXVL 

<•!'  me.     Ask  pardon  of  God  for  oil  your  sins  against  the  poor 
inii'Mvnt  savages,  when  you  saw  your  harmless  sheep  butd 
year  after  year,  and  yet  never  lifted  up  your  voice  to  save  the 
tin,  k  which  God  had  committed  to  you.     Oh,  confess  that,  my 
Lord  !  confess  it  ere  it  be  too  late  !" 

"I  will  confess  all  about  the  Indians,  and  the  gold,  and 
Tita  too,  Fray;  peccavi,  peccavi — only  five  minutes,  Senors, 
five  little  minutes'  grace,  while  I  confess  to  the  good  Fray ! " 
— and  he  grovelled  on  the  deck. 

"  I  will  have  no  such  mummery  where  I  command,"  said 
Amyas  sternly.  "  I  will  be  no  accomplice  in  cheating  Satan  of 
his  due." 

"  If  you  will  confess,"  said  Brimblecombe,  whose  heart  was 
melting  fast,  "confess  to  the  Lord,  and  He  will  forgive  you. 
Even  at  the  last  moment  mercy  is  open.  Is  it  not,  Fray 
Gerundio  ?" 

"It  is,  Senor;  it  is,  my  Lord,"  said  Gerundio;  but  the 
bishop  only  clasped  his  hands  over  his  head. 

"  Then  I  am  undone !  All  my  money  is  stolen !  Not  a 
farthing  left  to  buy  masses  for  my  poor  soul !  And  no  absolution, 
no  viaticum,  nor  anything !  I  die  like  a  dog  and  am  damned  ! " 

"  Clear  away  that  running  rigging !"  said  Amyas,  while  the 
dark  Dominican  stood  perfectly  collected,  with  something  of  a 
smile  of  pity  at  the  miserable  bishop.  A  man  accustomed  to 
cruelty,  and  firm  in  his  fanaticism,  he  was  as  ready  to  endure 
suffering  as  to  inflict  it;  repeating  to  himself  the  necessary 
prayers,  he  called  Fray  Gerundio  to  witness  that  he  died,  how- 
ever unworthy,  a  martyr,  in  charity  with  all  men,  and  in  the 
communion  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church  ;  and  then,  as  he  fitted 
the  cord  to  his  own  neck,  gave  Fray  Gerundio  various  petty 
commissions  about  his  sister  and  her  children,  and  a  little 
vineyard  far  away  upon  the  sunny  slopes  of  Castile ;  and  so 
died,  with  a  "  Domine,  in  manus  tuas,"  like  a  valiant  man  of 
Spain. 

Amyas  stood  long  in  solemn  silence,  watching  the  two 
corpses  dangling  above  his  head.  At  last  he  drew  a  long 
breath,  as  if  a  load  was  taken  off  his  heart. 

Suddenly  he  looked  round  to  his  men,  who  were  watching 
eagerly  to  know  what  he  would  have  done  next. 

"  Hearken  to  me,  my  masters  all,  and  may  God  hearken 
too,  and  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if,  as  long  as  I  have  eyes 
to  see  a  Spaniard,  and  hands  to  hew  him  down,  I  do  any  other 
thing  than  hunt  down  that  accursed  nation  day  and  night,  and 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  481 

avenge  all  the  innocent  blood  which  has  been  shed  by  them 
since  the  day  in  which  King  Ferdinand  drove  out  the  Moors  ! " 

"Amen  !"  said  Salvation  Yeo.  "  I  need  not  to  swear  that 
oath,  for  I  have  sworn  it  long  ago,  and  kept  it.  Will  your 
honour  have  us  kill  the  rest  of  the  idolaters  V 

"God  forbid!"  said  Gary.  "You  would  not  do  that, 
Amyas  1" 

"  No ;  we  will  spare  them.  God  has  shown  us  a  great 
mercy  this  day,  and  we  must  be  merciful  in  it.  We  will  land 
them  at  Cabo  Velo.  But  henceforth  till  I  die  no  quarter  to  a 
Spaniard." 

"  Amen  !"  said  Yeo. 

Amyas's  whole  countenance  had  changed  in  the  last  half- 
hour.  He  seemed  to  have  grown  years  older.  His  brow  was 
wrinkled,  his  lip  compressed,  his  eyes  full  of  a  terrible  stony  calm, 
as  of  one  who  had  formed  a  great  and  dreadful  purpose ;  and  yet 
for  that  very  reason  could  afford  to  be  quiet  under  the  burden 
of  it,  even  cheerful ;  and  when  he  returned  to  the  cabin  he 
bowed  courteously  to  the  commandant,  begged  pardon  of  him 
for  having  played  the  host  so  ill,  and  entreated  him  to  finish 
his  breakfast. 

"  But,  Senor — is  it  possible  1     Is  his  holiness  dead  1" 

"He  is  hanged  and  dead,  Senor.  I  would  have  hanged, 
could  I  have  caught  them,  every  living  thing  which  was  present 
at  my  brother's  death,  even  to  the  very  flies  upon  the  wall.  No 
more  words,  Senor ;  your  conscience  tells  you  that  I  am  just." 

"Senor,"  said  the  commandant — "One  word  —  I  trust 
there  are  no  listeners — none  of  my  crew,  I  mean ;  but  I  must 
exculpate  myself  in  your  eyes." 

"  Walk  out,  then,  into  the  gallery  with  me." 

"  To  tell  you  the  truth,  Senor — I  trust  in  Heaven  no  one 
overhears. — You  are  just.  This  Inquisition  is  the  curse  of  us, 
the  weight  which  is  crushing  out  the  very  life  of  Spain.  No 
man  dares  speak.  No  man  dares  trust  his  neighbour,  no,  not 
his  child,  or  the  wife  of  his  bosom.  It  avails  nothing  to  be 
a  good  Catholic,  as  I  trust  I  am,"  and  he  crossed  himself,  "  when 
any  villain  whom  you  may  offend,  any  unnatural  son  or  wife 
who  wishes  to  be  rid  of  you,  has  but  to  hint  heresy  against  you, 
and  you  vanish  into  the  Holy  Office — and  then  God  have  mercy 
on  you,  for  man  has  none.  Noble  ladies  of  my  family,  sir, 
have  vanished  thither,  carried  off  by  night,  we  know  not  why ; 
we  dare  not  ask  why.  To  expostulate,  even  to  inquire,  would 
have  been  to  share  their  fate.  There  is  one  now  Senor — 


•ISli  HOW  Tlli:V  TOOK  [.  IIAI-.  xxvi. 

'"IIP  knows  whether  she  is  alive  or  dead  ! — It  was  nine 
years  since,  and  we  have  m-v.-r  heard  ;  and  we  *hall  never  hear." 

And  the  commandant's  face  worked  frightfully. 

"  She  was  my  sister,  Senor ! " 

"  Heavens !  sir,  and  have  you  not  avenged  her?" 

"On  churchmen,  Senor,  and  I  a  Catholic?  To  be  burned 
at  the  stake  in  this  life,  and  after  that  to  all  eternity  beside  ? 
Even  a  Spaniard  dare  not  face  that  Beside,  sir,  the  mob  like 
this  Inquisition,  and  an  Auto-da-Fd  is  even  better  sport  to  them 
than  a  bull-fight.  They  would  be  the  first  to  tear  a  man  in 
pieces  who  dare  touch  an  Inquisitor.  Sir,  may  all  the  saints  in 
heaven  obtain  me  forgiveness  for  my  blasphemy,  but  when  I 
saw  you  just  now  fearing  those  churchmen  no  more  than  you 
feared  me,  I  longed,  sinner  that  I  am,  to  be  a  heretic  like 
you." 

"  It  will  not  take  long  to  make  a  brave  and  wise  gentleman 
who  has  suffered  such  things  as  you  have,  a  heretic,  as  you  call 
it — a  free  Christian  man,  as  we  call  it." 

"Tempt  me  not,  sir  !"  said  the  poor  man,  crossing  himself 
fervently.  "  Let  us  say  no  more.  Obedience  is  my  duty ;  and 
for  the  rest  the  Church  must  decide,  according  to  her  infallible 
authority — for  I  am  a  good  Catholic,  Senor,  the  best  of  Catholics, 
though  a  great  sinner. — I  trust  no  one  has  overhead  us  !" 

Amyas  left  him  with  a  smile  of  pity,  and  went  to  look  for 
Lucy  Passmore,  whom  the  sailors  were  nursing  and  feeding, 
while  Ayacanora  watched  them  with  a  puzzled  face. 

"  I  will  talk  to  you  when  you  are  better,  Lucy,"  said  he, 
taking  her  hand.  "  Now  you  must  eat  and  drink,  and  forget 
all  among  us  lads  of  Devon." 

"  Oh,  dear  blessed  sir,  and  you  will  send  Sir  John  to  pray 
with  me  ?  For  I  turned,  sir,  I  turned :  but  I  could  not  help 
it — I  could  not  abear  the  torments :  but  she  bore  them,  sweet 
angel — and  more  than  I  did.  Oh,  dear  me !" 

"  Lucy,  I  am  not  fit  now  to  hear  more.  You  shall  tell  me 
all  to-morrow;"  and  he  turned  away. 

"Why  do  you  take  her  hand1?"  said  Ayacanora,  half-scorn- 
fully.  "  She  is  old,  and  ugly,  and  dirty." 

"  She  is  an  Englishwoman,  child,  and  a  martyr,  poor  thing ; 
and  I  would  nurse  her  as  I  would  my  own  mother.'' 

"  Why  don't  you  make  me  an  Englishwoman,  and  a  martyr] 
I  could  learn  how  to  do  anything  that  that  old  hag  could  >\»  '." 

"  Instead  of  calling  her  names,  go  and  tend  her ;  that  would 
be  much  fitter  work  for  a  woman  than  fight  in?  amon?  men.'' 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  483 

Ayacanora  darted  from  him,  thrust  the  sailors  aside,  and 
took  possession  of  Lucy  Passmore. 

"Where  shall  I  put  her?"  asked  she  of  Amyas,  without 
looking  up. 

"  In  the  best  cabin  ;  and  let  her  be  served  like  a  queen,  lads." 

"No  one  shall  touch  her  but  me;"  and  taking  up  the 
withered  frame  in  her  arms,  as  if  it  were  a  doll,  Ayacanora 
walked  off  with  her  in  triumph,  telling  the  men  to  go  and  mind 
the  ship. 

"  The  girl  is  mad,"  said  one. 

"  Mad  or  not,  she  has  an  eye  to  our  captain,"  said  another. 

"  And  where's  the  man  that  would  behave  to  the  poor  wild 
thing  as  he  does  V 

"  Sir  Francis  Drake  would,  from  whom  he  got  his  lesson. 
Do  you  mind  his  putting  the  negro  lass  ashore  after  he  found 
out  about " 

"Hush.  Bygones  be  bygones,  and  those  that  did  it  are 
in  their  graves  long  ago.  But  it  was  too  hard  of  him  on  the 
poor  thing." 

"  If  he  had  not  got  rid  of  her,  there  would  have  been  more 
throats  than  one  cut  about  the  lass,  that's  all  I  know,"  said 
another ;  "  and  so  there  would  have  been  about  this  one  before 
now,  if  the  captain  wasn't  a  born  angel  out  of  heaven,  and  the 
lieutenant  no  less." 

"  Well,  I  suppose  we  may  get  a  whet  by  now.  I  wonder 
if  these  Dons  have  any  beer  aboard." 

"  Nought  but  grape  vinegar,  which  fools  call  wine,  I'll 
warrant." 

"  There  was  better  than  vinegar  on  the  table  in  there  just 
now." 

"  Ah,"  said  one  grumbler  of  true  English  breed,  "  but  that's 
not  for  poor  fellows  like  we." 

"Don't  lie,  Tom  Evans;  you  never  were  given  that  way 
yet,  and  I  don't  think  the  trade  will  suit  a  good  fellow  like 
you." 

The  whole  party  stared ;  for  the  speaker  of  these  words 
was  none  other  than  Amyas  himself,  who  had  rejoined  them,  a 
bottle  in  each  hand. 

"  No,  Tom  Evans.  It  has  been  share  and  share  alike  for 
three  years,  and  bravely  you  have  all  held  up,  and  share  alike 
it  shall  be  now,  and  here's  the  handsel  of  it.  We'll  serve  out 
the  good  wine  fairly  all  round  as  long  as  it  lasts,  and  then  take 
to  the  bad  :  but  mind  you  don't  get  drunk,  my  sons,  for  we  are 


484  II(.\V  THEY  TOOK  [CHAI.  xxvi. 

much  too  short  of  hands  to  have  any  stout  fellows  lying  about 
the  snip).. 

But  what  was  the  story  of  the  intendunt's  being  murdered  1 
r.rimhltviiinlH-  had  seen  him  run  into  a  neighbouring  cabin; 
and  win 'ii  the  door  of  it  was  opened,  there  was  the  culprit,  but 
dead  and  cold,  with  a  deep  knife-wound  in  his  side.  Who  could 
have  done  the  deed?  It  must  have  bem  Tita.  whom  Brhnble- 
combe  had  seen  loose,  and  trying  to  free  her  1m.  r. 

The  ship  was  searched  from  stem  to  stern :  but  no  Tita. 
The  mystery  was  never  explained.     That  she  had  It-apt 
l)oard,  and  tried  to  swim  ashore  none  doubted:  but  whether 
she  had  reached  it,  who  could  tell?     One  thing  was  strai 
that  not  only  had  she  carried  off  no  treasure  with  her,  but  that 
the  gold  ornaments  which  she  had  worn  the  night  before,  lay 
together  in  a  heap  on  the  table,  close  by  the  murdered  man. 
Had  she  wished  to  rid  herself  of  everything  which  had  belonged 
to  her  tyrants  ? 

The  commandant  heard  the  whole  story  thoughtfully. 

"  Wretched  man  !"  said  he,  "  and  he  has  a  wife  and  childn-n 
in  Seville." 

"  A  wife  and  children  ?"  said  Amyas ;  "  and  I  heard  him 
promise  marriage  to  the  Indian  girl" 

That  was  the  only  hint  which  gave  a  reason  for  his  death. 
What  if,  in  the  terror  of  discovery  and  capture,  the  scoundrel 
had  dropped  any  self-condemning  words  about  his  marriage,  any 
prayer  for  those  whom  he  had  left  behind,  and  the  Indian  ha<l 
overheard  them  ?  It  might  be  so ;  at  least  sin  had  brought  its 
own  punishment. 

And  so  that  wild  night  and  day  subsided.  The  prisoners 
were  kindly  used  enough ;  for  the  Englishman,  free  from  any 
petty  love  of  tormenting,  knows  no  mean  between  killing  a  foe 
outright,  and  treating  him  as  a  brother ;  and  when,  two  days 
afterwards,  they  were  sent  ashore  in  the  canoes  off  Cabo  Velo, 
captives  and  captors  shook  hands  all  round;  and  Amyas,  alter 
returning  the  commandant  his  sword,  and  presenting  him  with 
a  case  of  the  bishop's  wine,  bowed  him  courteously  over  the  side. 

"  I  trust  that  you  will  pay  us  another  visit,  valiant  SeSor 
Capitan,"  said  the  Spaniard,  bowing  and  smiling. 

"I  should  most  gladly  accept  your  invitation,  illustrious 
Sefior  Commandant ;  but  as  I  have  vowed  henceforth,  whenever 
I  shall  meet  a  Spaniard,  neither  to  give  nor  take  quarter,  I  trust 
that  our  paths  to  glory  may  lie  in  dim-rent  directions." 

The  commandant  shrugged  his  shoulders;   the  ship  was 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  THE  GREAT  GALLEON.  485 

put  again  before  the  wind,  and  as  the  shores  of  the  Main  faded 
lower  and  dimmer  behind  her,  a  mighty  cheer  broke  from  all  on 
board ;  and  for  once  the  cry  from  every  mouth  was  Eastward-ho ! 

Scrap  by  scrap,  as  weakness  and  confusion  of  intellect  per- 
mitted her,  Lucy  Passmore  told  her  story.  It  was  a  simple 
one  after  all,  and  Amyas  might  almost  have  guessed  it  for  him- 
self. Eose  had  not  yielded  to  the  Spaniard  without  a  struggle. 
He  had  visited  her  two  or  three  times  at  Lucy's  house  (how  he 
found  out  Lucy's  existence  she  herself  could  never  tell,  unless 
from  the  Jesuits)  before  she  agreed  to  go  with  him.  He  had 
gained  Lucy  to  his  side  by  huge  promises  of  Indian  gold ;  and, 
in  fine,  they  had  gone  to  Lundy,  where  the  lovers  were  married 
by  a  priest,  who  was  none  other,  Lucy  would  swear,  than  the 
shorter  and  stouter  of  the  two  who  had  carried  off  her  husband 
and  his  boat — in  a  word,  Father  Parsons. 

Amyas  gnashed  his  teeth  at  the  thought  that  he  had  had 
Parsons  in  his  power  at  Brenttor  down,  and  let  him  go.  It 
was  a  fresh  proof  to  him  that  Heaven's  vengeance  was  upon 
him  for  letting  one  of  its  enemies  escape.  Though  what  good 
to  Rose  or  Frank  the  hanging  of  Parsons  would  have  been,  I, 
for  my  part,  cannot  see. 

But  when  had  Eustace  been  at  Lundy  ?  Lucy  could  throw 
no  light  on  that  matter.  It  was  evidently  some  by -thread  in 
the  huge  spider's  web  of  Jesuit  intrigue,  which  was,  perhaps, 
not  worth  knowing  after  all. 

They  sailed  from  Lundy  in  a  Portugal  ship,  were  at  Lisbon 
a  few  days  (during  which  Rose  and  Lucy  remained  on  board), 
and  then  away  for  the  West  Indies ;  while  all  went  merry  as  a 
marriage  bell.  "Sir,  he  would  have  kissed  the  dust  off  her 
dear  feet,  till  that  evil  eye  of  Mr.  Eustace's  came,  no  one  knew 
how  or  whence."  And,  from  that  time,  all  went  wrong. 
Eustace  got  power  over  Don  Guzman,  whether  by  threatening 
that  the  marriage  should  be  dissolved,  whether  by  working  on 
his  superstitious  scruples  about  leaving  his  wife  still  a  heretic, 
or  whether  (and  this  last  Lucy  much  suspected)  by  insinuations 
that  her  heart  was  still  at  home  in  England,  and  that  she  was 
longing  for  Amyas  and  his  ship  to  come  and  take  her  home 
again ;  the  house  soon  became  a  den  of  misery,  and  Eustace  the 
presiding  evil  genius.  Don  Guzman  had  even  commanded  him 
to  leave  it — and  he  went ;  but,  somehow,  within  a  week  he  was 
there  again,  in  greater  favour  than  ever.  Then  came  prepara- 
tions to  meet  the  English,  and  high  words  about  it  between 
Don  Guzman  and  Rose ;  till  a  few  days  before  Amyas 's  arrival, 


HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [,-HAP.  xxvii. 


the  I><>n  had  dashed  mil  nf  tin-  house  in  a  fury,  saying 

tliat  she  preferred  these  Lutheran   dn^s   to  him,  ami  that  he 

Mould  have  their  hearts'  blood  first,  and  here  after. 

The  rest  was  soon  told.  Amyas  knew  but  too  much  of  it 
already.  The  very  morning  after  he  had  gone  up  to  the  villa, 
Lucy  ami  her  mistress  were  taken  (they  knew  not  by  whom) 
iliiwu  to  the  quay,  in  the  name  of  the  Holy  Office,  and  ahipjied 
off  to  Carthagena. 

There  they  were  examined,  and  confronted  on  a  charge  of 
witchcraft,  which  the  wretched  Lucy  could  not  well  deny.  She 
was  tortured  to  make  her  inculpate  Rose  ;  and  what 
or  did  not  say,  under  the  torture,  the  poor  wretch  could  i 
tell.  She  recanted,  and  became  a  Romanist;  Rose  remained 
firm.  Three  weeks  afterwards,  they  were  brought  out  to  an 
Auto-da-Fe";  and  there,  for  the  first  time,  Lucy  saw  Frank  walk- 
ing, dressed  in  a  San  Benito,  in  that  ghastly  procession.  Lucy 
was  adjudged  to  receive  publicly  two  hundred  stripes,  and  to  be 
sent  to  "  The  Holy  House  "  at  Seville  to  perpetual  prison. 
Frank  and  Rose,  with  a  renegade  Jew,  and  a  negro  who  had 
been  convicted  of  practising  "  Obi,"  were  sentenced  to  death  as 
impenitent,  and  delivered  over  to  the  secular  arm,  with  prayers 
that  there  might  be  no  shedding  of  blood.  In  compliance  with 
which  request,  the  Jew  and  the  negro  were  burnt  at  one  stake, 
Frank  and  Rose  at  another.  She  thought  they  did  not  feel  it 
more  than  twenty  minutes.  They  were  both  very  bold  and 
steadfast,  and  held  each  other's  hand  (that  she  would  swear  to) 
to  the  very  last. 

And  so  ended  Lucy  Passmore's  story.  And  if  Amyas  Leigh, 
after  he  had  heard  it,  vowed  afresh  to  give  no  quarter  to 
Spaniards  wherever  he  should  find  them,  who  can  wonder,  even 
if  they  blame  ? 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

HOW  SALVATION  YEO  FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN. 

"  All  precious  things,  discover'd  late, 

To  them  who  seek  them  issue  forth  ; 
For  love  in  sequel  works  with  fate, 

And  draws  the  veil  from  hidden  worth." 

The  Sleeping  Beauty. 

AND  so  Ayacanora  took  up  her  abode  in  Lucy's  cabin,  as  a 
regularly  accredited  member  of  the  crew. 


CHAP.  XXVII.]       FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  487 

But  a  most  troublesome  member;  for  now  began  in  her 
that  perilous  crisis  which  seems  to  endanger  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  all  savages  and  savage  tribes,  when  they  first  mingle 
with  the  white  man ;  that  crisis  which,  a  few  years  afterwards, 
began  to  hasten  the  extermination  of  the  North  American  tribes ; 
and  had  it  not  been  for  the  admirable  good  sense  and  constancy 
of  Amyas,  Ayacanora  might  have  ended  even  more  miserably 
than  did  the  far-famed  Pocahontas,  daughter  of  the  Virginian 
king;  who,  after  having  been  received  at  Court  by  the  old 
pedant  James  the  First,  with  the  honours  of  a  sister  sovereign, 
and  having  become  the  reputed  ancestress  of  more  than  one 
ancient  Virginian  family,  ended  her  days  in  wretchedness  in 
some  Wapping  garret. 

For  the  mind  of  the  savage,  crushed  by  the  sight  of  the 
white  man's  superior  skill,  and  wealth,  and  wisdom,  loses  at 
first  its  self-respect ;  while  his  body,  pampered  with  easily- 
obtained  luxuries,  instead  of  having  to  win  the  necessaries  of 
life  by  heavy  toil,  loses  its  self-helpfulness ;  and  with  self-respect 
and  self-help  vanish  all  the  savage  virtues,  few  and  flimsy  as 
they  are,  and  the  downward  road  toward  begging  and  stealing, 
sottishness  and  idleness,  is  easy,  if  not  sure. 

And  down  that  road,  it  really  seemed  at  first,  that  poor 
Ayacanora  was  walking  fast.  For  the  warrior-prophetess  of  the 
Omaguas  soon  became,  to  all  appearance,  nothing  but  a  very 
naughty  child ;  and  the  Diana  of  the  Meta,  after  she  had  satis- 
fied her  simple  wonder  at  the  great  floating  house  by  rambling 
from  deck  to  deck,  and  peeping  into  every  cupboard  and  cranny, 
manifested  a  great  propensity  to  steal  and  hide  (she  was  too 
proud  or  too  shy  to  ask  for)  every  trumpery  which  smit  her 
fancy ;  and  when  Amyas  forbade  her  to  take  anything  without 
leave,  threatened  to  drown  herself,  and  went  off  and  sulked  all 
day  in  her  cabin.  Nevertheless,  she  obeyed  him,  except  in  the 
matter  of  sweet  things.  Perhaps  she  craved  naturally  for  the 
vegetable  food  of  her  native  forests ;  at  all  events  the  bishop's 
stores  of  fruit  and  sweetmeats  diminished  rapidly ;  and  what 
was  worse,  so  did  the  sweet  Spanish  wine  which  Amyas  had 
set  apart  for  poor  Lucy's  daily  cordial.  Whereon  another 
severe  lecture,  in  which  Amyas  told  her  how  mean  it  was  to  rob 
poor  sick  Lucy;  whereat  she,  as  usual,  threatened  to  drown 
herself;  and  was  running  upon  deck  to  do  it,  when  Amyas 
caught  her  and  forgave  her.  On  which  a  violent  fit  of  crying, 
and  great  penitence  and  promises ;  and  a  week  after,  Amyas 
found  that  she  had  cheated  Satan  and  her  own  conscience  by 


•1SS  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

tormenting  the  Portuguese  steward  into  giving  her  some  other 
instead  :  but  luckily  for  her,  she  found  Amyas's  warnings 
wine  making  her  mad  so  far  fulfilled,  that  she  did  several 
fooUsh  things  one  evening,  and  had  a  bud  headache  next  morn- 
ing ;  so  the  murder  was  out,  and  Ainyas  ordered  the  steward  up 
for  a  sound  flogging;  but  Ayacanora,  honourably  enough,  not 
only  begged  him  off,  but  offered  to  be  whipped  instead  of  him, 
confessing  that  the  poor  fellow  spoke  truly  when  he  swore  that 
she  had  threatened  to  kill  him,  and  that  he  had  given  her  the 
wine  in  bodily  fear  for  his  life. 

However,  her  own  headache  and  Amyas's  cold  looks  were 
lesson  enough,  and  after  another  attempt  to  drown  herself,  the 
wilful  beauty  settled  down  for  awhile ;  and  what  was  better, 
could  hardly  be  persuaded,  thenceforth  to  her  dying  day,  to 
touch  fermented  liquors. 

But,  in  the  meanwhile,  poor  Amyas  had  many  a  brains- 
beating  as  to  how  he  was  to  tame  a  lady  who,  on  the  least  pro- 
vocation, took  refuge  in  suicide.  Punish  her  he  dared  not,  even 
if  he  had  the  heart.  And  as  for  putting  her  ashore,  he  had  an 
instinct,  and  surely  not  a  superstitious  one,  that  her  strange 
affection  for  the  English  was  not  unsent  by  Heaven,  and  that 
God  had  committed  her  into  his  charge,  and  that  He  would 
require  an  account  at  his  hands  of  the  soul  of  that  fair  lost 
lamb. 

So,  almost  at  his  wits'  end,  he  prayed  to  God,  good  simple 
fellow,  and  that  many  a  time,  to  show  him  what  he  should  do 
with  her  before  she  killed  either  herself,  or  what  was  just  as 
likely,  one  of  the  crew ;  and  it  seemed  best  to  him  to  make 
Parson  Jack  teach  her  the  rudiments  of  Christianity,  that  she 
might  be  baptized  in  due  time  when  they  got  home  to  England. 

But  here  arose  a  fresh  trouble — for  she  roundly  refused  to 
learn  of  Jack,  or  of  any  one  but  Amyas  himself;  while  he  had 
many  a  good  reason  for  refusing  the  office  of  schoolmaster ;  so, 
for  a  week  or  two  more,  Ayacanora  remained  untaught,  save 
in  the  English  tongue,  which  she  picked  up  with  marvellous 
rapidity. 

And  next,  as  if  troubles  would  never  end,  she  took  a  violent 
dislike,  not  only  to  John  Brimblecombe,  whose  gait  and  voice 
she  openly  mimicked  for  the  edification  of  the  men ;  but  also  to 
Will  Gary,  whom  she  never  allowed  to  speak  to  her  or  approach 
her.  Perhaps  she  was  jealous  of  his  intimacy  with  Amyas ;  or 
perhaps,  with  the  subtle  instinct  of  a  woman,  she  knew  that  he 
was  the  only  other  man  on  board  who  might  dare  to  make  love 


CHAP.  XXVII.]       FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  489 

to  her  (though  Will,  to  do  him  justice,  was  as  guiltless  of  any 
such  intention  as  Amyas  himself).  But  when  she  was  remon- 
strated with,  her  only  answer  was  that  Gary  was  a  cacique  as 
well  as  Amyas,  and  that  there  ought  not  to  be  two  caciques ; 
and  one  day  she  actually  proposed  to  Amyas  to  kill  his  sup- 
posed rival,  and  take  the  ship  all  to  himself;  and  sulked  for 
several  days  at  hearing  Amyas,  amid  shouts  of  laughter,  retail 
her  precious  advice  to  its  intended  victim. 

Moreover,  the  negroes  came  in  for  their  share,  being  re- 
garded all  along  by  her  with  an  unspeakable  repugnance,  which 
showed  itself  at  first  in  hiding  from  them  whenever  she  could, 
and,  afterwards,  in  throwing  at  them  everything  she  could  lay 
hands  on,  till  the  poor  Quashies,  in  danger  of  their  lives,  com- 
plained to  Amyas,  and  got  rest  for  awhile. 

Over  the  rest  of  the  sailors  she  lorded  it  like  a  very  princess, 
calling  them  from  their  work  to  run  on  her  errands  and  make 
toys  for  her,  enforcing  her  commands  now  and  then  by  a  shrewd 
box  on  the  ears ;  while  the  good  fellows,  especially  old  Yeo, 
like  true  sailors,  petted  her,  obeyed  her,  even  jested  with  her, 
much  as  they  might  have  done  with  a  tame  leopard,  whose 
claws  might  be  unsheathed  and  about  their  ears  at  any  moment. 
But  she  amused  them,  and  amused  Amyas  too.  They  must  of 
course  have  a  pet ;  and  what  prettier  one  could  they  have  ? 
And  as  for  Amyas,  the  constant  interest  of  her  presence,  even 
the  constant  anxiety  of  her  wilfulness,  kept  his  mind  busy,  and 
drove  out  many  a  sad  foreboding  about  that  meeting  with  his 
mother,  and  the  tragedy  which  he  had  to  tell  her,  which  would 
otherwise,  so  heavily  did  they  weigh  on  him,  have  crushed  his 
spirit  with  melancholy,  and  made  all  his  worldly  success  and 
marvellous  deliverance  worthless  in  his  eyes. 

At  last  the  matter,  as  most  things  luckily  do,  came  to  a 
climax ;  and  it  came  in  this  way. 

The  ship  had  been  slipping  along  now  for  many  a  day,  slowly 
but  steadily  before  a  favourable  breeze.  She  had  passed  the  ring 
of  the  West  India  islands,  and  was  now  crawling,  safe  from  all 
pursuit,  through  the  vast  weed-beds  of  the  Sargasso  Sea.  There, 
for  the  first  time,  it  was  thought  safe  to  relax  the  discipline 
which  had  been  hitherto  kept  up,  and  to  "rummage"  (as  was 
the  word  in  those  days)  their  noble  prize.  What  they  found, 
of  gold  and  silver,  jewels,  and  merchandise,  will  interest  no 
readers.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  there  was  enough  there,  with 
the  other  treasure,  to  make  Amyas  rich  for  life,  after  all  claims 
of  Gary's  and  the  crew,  not  forgetting  Mr.  Salterne's  third,  as 


490  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  XXVIL 

owner  of  the  ship,  had  been  paid  off.  But  in  the  captain's  cabin 
were  found  two  chests,  one  full  of  gorgeous  Mexican  feather 
dresses,  and  the  other  of  Spanish  and  East  Indian  finery,  which, 
having  come  by  way  of  Havanna  and  Carthagena,  was  goin^c  on, 
it  seemed,  to  some  SeSora  or  other  at  the  Carraccas.  Which 
two  chests  were,  at  Gary's  proposal,  voted  amid  the  acclamations 
of  the  crew  to  Ayacanora,  as  her  due  and  fit  share  of  the  pillage, 
in  consideration  of  her  Amazonian  prowess  and  valuable  services. 

So  the  poor  child  took  greedy  possession  of  the  trumpery, 
had  them  carried  into  Lucy's  cabin,  and  there  knelt  gloating 
over  them  many  an  hour.  The  Mexican  work  she  chose  to 
despise  as  savage ;  but  the  Spanish  dresses  were  a  treasure ;  ami 
for  two  or  three  days  she  appeared  on  the  quarter-deck,  sunning 
herself  like  a  peacock  before  the  eyes  of  Ainyas  in  Seville  man- 
tillas, Madrid  hats,  Indian  brocade  farthingales,  and  I  know  not 
how  many  other  gewgaws,  and  dare  not  say  how  put  on. 

The  crew  tittered :  Amyas  felt  much  more  inclined  to  cry. 
There  is  nothing  so  pathetic  as  a  child's  vanity,  saving  a  grown 
person  aping  a  child's  vanity ;  and  saving,  too,  a  child's  agony 
of  disappointment  when  it  finds  that  it  has  been  laughed  at  in- 
stead of  being  admired.  Amyas  would  have  spoken,  but  he  was 
afraid :  however,  the  evil  brought  its  own  cure.  The  pageant 
went  on,  as  its  actor  thought,  most  successfully  for  three  days 
or  so ;  but  at  last  the  dupe,  unable  to  contain  herself  longer, 
appealed  to  Amyas, — "Ayacauora  quite  English  girl  now;  is 
she  not?" — heard  a  titter  behind  her,  looked  round,  saw  a  dozen 
honest  faces  in  broad  grin,  comprehended  all  in  a  moment,  darted 
down  the  companion-ladder,  and  vanished. 

Amyas,  fully  expecting  her  to  jump  overboard,  followed  as 
fast  as  he  could.  But  she  had  locked  herself  in  with  Lucy,  and 
he  could  hear  her  violent  sobs,  and  Lucy's  faint  voice  entreating 
to  know  what  was  the  matter. 

In  vain  he  knocked.  She  refused  to  come  out  all  day,  and 
at  even  they  were  forced  to  break  the  door  open,  to  prevent 
Lucy  being  starved. 

There  sat  Ayacanora,  her  finery  half  torn  off,  and  scattered 
about  the  floor  in  spite,  crying  still  as  if  her  heart  would  break ; 
while  poor  Lucy  cried  too,  half  from  fright  and  hunger,  and 
half  for  company. 

Amyas  tried  to  comfort  the  poor  child,  assured  her  that  the 
men  should  never  laugh  at  her  again  ;  "  But  then,"  added  he, 
"  you  must  not  be  so — so "  What  to  say  he  hardly  knew. 

"  So  what  1 "  asked  she,  crying  more  bitterly  than  ever. 


CHAP.  XXVII.]       FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  491 

"  So  like  a  wild  girl,  Ayacanora." 

Her  hands  dropped  on  her  knees  :  a  strong  spasm  ran  through 
her  throat  and  bosom,  and  she  fell  on  her  knees  before  him,  and 
looked  up  imploringly  in  his  face. 

"  Yes ;  wild  girl — poor,  bad  wild  girl.  .  .  .  But  I  will  be 
English  girl  now  ! " 

"  Fine  clothes  will  never  make  you  English,  my  child,"  said 
Amyas. 

"No!  not  English  clothes — English  heart!  Good  heart, 
like  yours  !  Yes,  I  will  be  good,  and  Sir  John  shall  teach  me  !" 

"  There's  my  good  maid,"  said  Amyas.  "  Sir  John  shall 
begin  and  teach  you  to-morrow." 

"  No  !  Now  !  now  !  Ayacanora  cannot  wait.  She  will 
drown  herself  if  she  is  bad  another  day  !  Come,  now  !" 

And  she  made  him  fetch  Brimblecombe,  heard  the  honest 
fellow  patiently  for  an  hour  or  more,  and  told  Lucy  that  very 
night  all  that  he  had  said.  And  from  that  day,  wheneyer  Jack 
went  in  to  read  and  pray  with  the  poor  sufferer,  Ayacanora, 
instead  of  escaping  on  deck  as  before,  stood  patiently  trying  to 
make  it  all  out,  and  knelt  when  he  knelt,  and  tried  to  pray  too 
— that  she  might  have  an  English  heart ;  and  doubtless  her 
prayers,  dumb  as  they  were,  were  not  unheard. 

So  went  on  a  few  days  more,  hopefully  enough,  without  any 
outbreak,  till  one  morning,  just  after  they  had  passed  the  Sar- 
gasso-beds. The  ship  was  taking  care  of  herself;  the  men  were 
all  on  deck  under  the  awning,  tinkering,  and  cobbling,  and 
chatting;  Brimblecombe  was  catechising  his  fair  pupil  in  the 
cabin  ;  Amyas  and  Gary,  cigar  in  mouth,  were  chatting  about 
all  heaven  and  earth,  and,  above  all,  of  the  best  way  of  getting  up 
a  fresh  adventure  against  the  Spaniards  as  soon  as  they  returned; 
while  Amyas  was  pouring  out  to  Will  that  dark  hatred  of  the 
whole  nation,  that  dark  purpose  of  revenge  for  his  brother  and 
for  Eose,  which  had  settled  down  like  a  murky  cloud  into  every 
cranny  of  his  heart  and  mind.  Suddenly  there  was  a  noise 
below;  a  scuffle  and  a  shout,  which  made  them  both  leap  to 
their  feet ;  and  up  on  deck  rushed  Jack  Brimblecombe,  holding 
his  head  on  with  both  his  hands. 

"  Save  me  !  save  me  from  that  she-fiend  !  She  is  possessed 
with  a  legion  !  She  has  broken  my  nose — torn  out  half  my 
hair  ! — and  I'm  sure  I  have  none  to  spare  !  Here  she  comes  ! 
Stand  by  me,  gentlemen  both  !  Satanas,  I  defy  thee  !"  And 
Jack  ensconced  himself  behind  the  pair,  as  Ayacanora  whirled 
upon  deck  like  a  very  Msenad,  and,  seeing  Amyas,  stopped  short. 


102  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP,  xxvn. 

"  If  you  had  defied  Satan  down  below  there,"  said  Gary, 
with  a  laugh,  "I  suspect  In-  wouldn't  have  broken  out  on  you 
so  boldly,  M:i>t«-r  .lark." 

u  I  am  innocent — innocent  as  the  babe  unborn  !  Oh  !  Mr. 
Gary  !  this  is  too  bad  of  you,  sir !"  quoth  Jack  indignantly, 
while  Ainyas  asked  what  was  the  matter. 

"  He  looked  at  me,"  said  she  sturdily. 

"  Well,  a  cat  may  look  at  a  king." 

"  I '.ut  he  shan't  look  at  Ayacanora.  Nobody  shall  but  you, 
or  I'll  kill  him  !" 

In  vain  Jack  protested  his  innocence  of  having  even  looked 
at  her.  The  fancy  (and  I  verily  believe  it  was  nothing  in  on  •) 
had  taken  possession  of  her.  She  refused  to  return  below  to 
her  lesson.  Jack  went  off  grumbling,  minus  his  hair,  and  wore 
a  black  eye  for  a  week  after. 

"  At  all  events,"  quoth  Gary,  re-lighting  his  cigar,  "  it's  a 
fault  on  .the  right  side." 

"  God  give  me  grace,  or  it  may  be  one  on  the  wrong  side  for 
me." 

"He  will,  old  heart -of -oak!"  said  Gary,  laying  his  arm 
around  Amyas's  neck,  to  the  evident  disgust  of  Ayacanora,  who 
went  off  to  the  side,  got  a  fishing-line,  and  began  amusing  herself 
therewith,  while  the  ship  slipped  on  quietly  and  silently  as  ever, 
save  when  Ayacanora  laughed  and  clapped  her  hands  at  the 
flying-fish  scudding  from  the  bonitos.  At  last,  tired  of  doing 
nothing,  she  went  forward  to  the  poop-rail  to  listen  to  John 
Squire  the  armourer,  who  sat  tinkering  a  headpiece,  and  hum- 
ming a  song,  mutato  nomine,  concerning  his  native  place — 

11  Oh,  Bideford  is  a  pleasant  place,  it  shines  where  it  stands, 
And  the  more  I  look  upon  it,  the  more  my  heart  it  warms  ; 
For  there  are  fair  young  lasses,  in  rows  upon  the  quay, 
To  welcome  gallant  mariners,  when  they  come  home  from  say." 

"  Tis  Sunderland,  John  Squire,  to  the  song,  and  not  Bide- 
vor,"  said  his  mate. 

"Well,  Bidevor's  so  good  as  Sunderland  any  day,  for  all 
there's  no  say-coals  there  blacking  a  place  about ;  and  makes 
just  so  good  harmonies,  Tommy  Hamblyn — 

"  Oh,  if  I  was  a  herring,  to  swim  the  ocean  o'er, 
Or  if  I  was  a  say-dove,  to  fly  unto  the  shoor, 
To  fly  unto  my  true  love,  a  waiting  at  the  door, 
To  wed  her  with  a  goold  ring,  and  plough  the  main  no  moor. " 

Here  Yeo  broke  in — 

"  Aren't  you  ashamed,  John  Squire,  to  your  years,  singing 


CHAP.  XXVII.]      FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  493 

such  carnal  vanities,  after  all  the  providences  you  have  seen  ? 
Let  the  songs  of  Zion  be  in  your  mouth,  man,  if  you  must  needs 
keep  a  caterwauling  all  day  like  that." 

"  You  sing  'em  yourself  then,  gunner." 

"  Well,"  says  Yeo,  "  and  why  not  V  And  out  he  pulled  his 
psalm-book,  and  began  a  scrap  of  the  grand  old  psalm — 

' '  Such  as  in  ships  and  brittle  barks 

Into  the  seas  descend, 
Their  merchandise  through  fearful  floods 

To  compass  and  to  end ; 
There  men  are  forced  to  behold 

The  Lord's  works  what  they  be ; 
And  in  the  dreadful  deep  the  same, 

Most  marvellous  they  see." 

"  Humph  !"  said  John  Squire.  "  Very  good  and  godly:  but 
still  I  du  like  a  merry  catch  now  and  then,  I  du.  Wouldn't 
you  let  a  body  sing  '  Rumbelow' — even  when  he's  heaving  of 
the  anchor  ?" 

"Well,  I  don't  know,"  said  Yeo;  "but  the  Lord's  people 
had  better  praise  the  Lord  then  too,  and  pray  for  a  good  voyage, 
instead  of  howling  about — 

"  A  randy,  dandy,  dandy  0, 

A  whet  of  ale  and  brandy  0, 
With  a  rumbelow  and  a  Westward-ho  ! 
And  heave,  my  mariners  all,  0  !" 

"  Is  that  fit  talk  for  immortal  souls  ?  How  does  that 
child's-trade  sound  beside  the  Psalms,  John  Squire  1" 

Now  it  befell  that  Salvation  Yeo,  for  the  very  purpose  of 
holding  up  to  ridicule  that  time-honoured  melody,  had  put  into 
it  the  true  nasal  twang,  and  rung  it  out  as  merrily  as  he  had 
done  perhaps  twelve  years  before,  when  he  got  up  John  Oxen- 
ham's  anchor  in  Plymouth  Sound.  And  it  befell  also  that 
Ayacanora,  as  she  stood  by  Amyas's  side,  watching  the  men, 
and  trying  to  make  out  their  chat,  heard  it,  and  started ;  and 
then,  half  to  herself,  took  up  the  strain,  and  sang  it  over  again, 
word  for  word,  in  the  very  same  tune  and  tone. 

Salvation  Yeo  started  in  his  turn,  and  turned  deadly  pale. 

"  Who  sung  that  ?"  he  asked  quickly. 

"The  little  maid  here.  She's  coming  on  nicely  in  her 
English,"  said  Amyas. 

"  The  little  maid  V  said  Yeo,  turning  paler  still.  "  Why  do 
you  go  about  to  scare  an  old  servant,  by  talking  of  little  maids, 
Captain  Amyas  1  Well,"  he  said  aloud  to  himself,  "  as  I  am  a 
sinful  saint,  if  I  hadn't  seen  where  the  voice  came  from,  I  could 


494  HOW  SALVATION  YEO  [CHAP.  TXVII. 

have  sworn  it  was  her ;  just  as  we  taught  her  to  sing  it  by  the 
river  there,  I  :m<l  William  IN  H!H  rthy  of  Marazion,  my  good 
comrade.  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  me  ! " 

All  were  silent  as  the  grave  whenever  Yeo  made  any  allusion 
to  that  lost  child.  Ayacanora  only,  pleased  with  Amyas's  com- 
mendation, went  humming  on  to  herself — 

"  And  heave,  my  mariners  all,  O  !" 

Yeo  started  up  from  the  gun  where  he  sat.  "  I  can't  abear 
it !  As  I  live,  I  can't !  You,  Indian  maiden,  where  did  you 
learn  to  sing  that  there  V 

Ayacanora  looked  up  at  him,  half  frightened  by  his  vehe- 
mence, then  at  Amyas,  to  see  if  she  had  been  doing  anything 
wrong ;  and  then  turned  saucily  away,  looked  over  the  side,  and 
hummed  on. 

"Ask  her,  for  mercy's  sake — ask  her,  Captain  Leigh  !" 

"  My  child,"  said  Amyas,  speaking  in  Indian,  "  how  is  it  you 
sing  that  so  much  better  than  any  other  English  ?  Did  you 
ever  hear  it  before  V 

Ayacanora  looked  up  at  him  puzzled,  and  shook  her  head ; 
and  then — 

"  If  you  tell  Indian  to  Ayacanora,  she  dumb.  She  must  be 
English  girl  now,  like  poor  Lucy." 

"  Well  then,"  said  Amyas,  "  do  you  recollect,  Ayacanora — 
do  you  recollect — what  shall  I  say?  anything  that  happened 
when  you  were  a  little  girl  1" 

She  paused  awhile ;  and  then  moving  her  hands  overhead — 

"  Trees — great  trees  like  the  Magdalena — always  nothing 
but  trees — wild  and  bad  everything.  Ayacanora  won't  talk 
about  that." 

"Do  you  mind  anything  that  grew  on  those  trees?"  asked 
Yeo  eagerly. 

She  laughed.  "  Silly !  Flowers  and  fruit,  and  nuts — grow 
on  all  trees,  and  monkey-cups  too.  Ayacanora  climbed  up  after 
them — when  she  was  wild.  I  won't  tell  any  more." 

"But  who  taught  you  to  call  them  monkey -cups'?"  asked 
Yeo,  trembling  with  excitement. 

"  Monkey's  drink ;  mono  drink." 

"Mono?"  said  Yeo,  foiled  on  one  cast,  and  now  trying  an- 
other. "  How  did  you  know  the  beasts  were  called  monoe  V 

"  She  might  have  heard  it  coming  down  with  us,"  said  Cary, 
who  had  joined  the  group. 

"  A.y,  monos,"  said  she,  in  a  self-justifying  tone.     "  Faces 


CHAP.  XXVII.]       FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  495 

like  little  men,  and  tails.  And  one  very  dirty  black  one,  with 
a  beard,  say  Amen  in  a  tree  to  all  the  other  monkeys,  just  like 
Sir  John  on  Sunday." 

This  allusion  to  Brimblecombe  and  the  preaching  apes  upset 
all  but  old  Yeo. 

"But  don't  you  recollect  any  Christians? — white  people?" 

She  was  silent. 

"Don't  you  mind  a  white  lady1?" 

"  Urn ?" 

"A  woman,  a  very  pretty  woman,  with  hair  like  his?" 
pointing  to  Amyas. 

"  No." 

"  What  do  you  mind,  then,  beside  those  Indians  V  added 
Yeo,  in  despair. 

She  turned  her  back  on  him  peevishly,  as  if  tired  with  the 
efforts  of  her  memory. 

"  Do  try  to  remember,"  said  Amyas ;  and  she  set  to  work 
again  at  once. 

"  Ayacanora  mind  great  monkeys — black,  oh,  so  high,"  and 
she  held  up  her  hand  above  her  head,  and  made  a  violent 
gesture  of  disgust. 

"Monkeys?  what,  with  tails?" 

"No,  like  man.  Ah!  yes — just  like  Cooky  there — dirty 
Cooky!" 

And  that  hapless  son  of  Ham,  who  happened  to  be  just 
crossing  the  main-deck,  heard  a  marlingspike,  which  by  ill  luck 
was  lying  at  hand,  flying  past  his  ears. 

"  Ayacanora,  if  you  heave  any  more  things  at  Cooky,  I  must 
have  you  whipped,"  said  Amyas,  without,  of  course,  any  such 
intention. 

"  I'll  kill  you,  then,"  answered  she,  in  the  most  matter  of 
fact  tone. 

" She  must  mean  Negurs,"  said  Yeo  ;  "I  wonder  where  she 
saw  them,  now.  What  if  it  were  they  Cimaroons  ?" 

"  But  why  should  any  one  who  had  seen  whites  forget  them, 
and  yet  remember  Negroes'?"  asked  Gary. 

"  Let  us  try  again.  Do  you  mind  no  great  monkeys  but 
those  black  ones  ?"  asked  Amyas. 

"Yes,"  she  said,  after  awhile, — "Devil." 

"  Devil  ?"  asked  all  three,  who,  of  course,  were  by  no  means 
free  from  the  belief  that  the  fiend  did  actually  appear  to  the 
Indian  conjurors,  such  as  had  brought  up  the  girl. 

"Ay,  him  Sir  John  tell  about  on  Sundays." 


•I'."!  IK'NV  SALVATION  Yi:»  [riur.  xxvu. 

"Save  and  help  us ! "  said  Yeo :  "and  what  was  he  like  unto?" 

She  made  various  signs  to  intimate  that  he  had  a  monk. -\ '« 
face,  and  a  grey  beanl  like  Yeo's.  So  far  BO  good :  but  now 
came  a  series  of  manipulations  about  her  pretty  little  neck, 
which  set  all  their  fam-ics  at  fault. 

"  I  know,"  said  Gary,  at  last,  bursting  into  a  great  laugh. 
"Sir  Urian  had  a  ruff  on,  as  I  live !  Trunk-hose  too,  my  fair 
dame  ?  Stop — I'll  make  sure.  Was  his  neck  like  the  Senor 
Commandant's,  the  Spaniard?" 

Ayacanora  clapped  her  hands  at  rinding  herself  understood, 
and  the  questioning  went  on. 

"  The  '  Devil '  appeared  like  a  monkey,  with  a  grey  beard, 
in  a  ruff ; — humph  ! " 

"  Ay!"  said  she  in  good  enough  Spanish,  "Mono  de  Panama; 
viejo  diablo  de  Panama." 

Yeo  threw  up  his  hands  with  a  shriek — 

"  Oh  Lord  of  all  mercies !  Those  were  the  last  words  of 
Mr.  John  Oxenham  !  Ay — and  the  Devil  is  surely  none  other 
than  the  devil  Don  Francisco  Xararte !  Oh  dear !  oh  dear !  oh 
dear  !  my  sweet  young  lady  !  my  pretty  little  maid  !  and  don't 
you  know  me?  Don't  you  know  Salvation  Yeo,  that  carried 
you  over  the  mountains,  and  used  to  climb  for  the  monkey-cups 
for  you,  my  dear  young  lady?  And  William  Penberthy  too, 
that  used  to  get  you  flowers ;  and  your  poor  dear  father,  that 
was  just  like  Mr.  Gary  there,  only  he  had  a  black  beard,  and 
black  curls,  and  swore  terribly  in  his  speech,  like  a  Spaniard, 
my  dear  young  lady  ?" 

And  the  honest  fellow,  falling  on  his  knees,  covered  Aya- 
canora's  hands  with  kisses ;  while  all  the  crew,  fancying  him 
gone  suddenly  mad,  crowded  aft. 

"Steady,  men,  and  don't  vex  him!"  said  Amyas.  "He 
thinks  that  he  has  found  his  little  maid  at  last." 

"  And  so  do  I,  Amyas,  as  I  live,"  said  Gary. 

"  Steady,  steady,  my  masters  all !  If  this  turn  out  a  wrong 
scent  after  all,  his  wits  will  crack.  Mr.  Yeo,  can't  you  think 
of  any  other  token  ?" 

Yeo  stamped  impatiently.  "  What  need  then  ?  It's  her,  I 
tell  ye,  and  that's  enough  !  What  a  beauty  she's  grown  !  Oh 
dear  !  where  were  my  eyes  all  this  time,  to  behold  her,  and  not 
to  see  her  !  'Tis  her  very  mortal  self,  it  is  !  And  don't  you 
mind  me,  my  dear,  now  ?  Don't  you  mind  Salvation  Yeo,  that 
taught  you  to  sing  'Heave  my  mariners  all,  0  !'  a-sitting  on  a 
log  by  the  boat  upon  the  sand,  and  there  was  a  sight  of  red  lilies 


CHAP.  XXVII.]      FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID  AGAIN.  497 

grew  on  it  in  the  moss,  dear,  now,  wasn't  there  ?  and  we  made 
posies  of  them  to  put  in  your  hair,  now1?" — And  the  poor  old 
man  ran  on  in  a  supplicating,  suggestive  tone,  as  if  he  coidd 
persuade  the  girl  into  becoming  the  person  whom  he  sought. 

Ayacanora  had  watched  him,  first  angry,  then  amused,  then 
attentive,  and  at  last  with  the  most  intense  earnestness.  Suddenly 
she  grew  crimson,  and  snatching  her  hands  from  the  old  man's, 
hid  her  face  in  them,  and  stood. 

"Do  you  remember  anything  of  all  this,  my  child?"  asked 
Amyas  gently. 

She  lifted  up  her  eyes  suddenly  to  his,  with  a  look  of 
imploring  agony,  as  if  beseeching  him  to  spare  her.  The  death 
of  a  whole  old  life,  the  birth  of  a  whole  new  life,  was  struggling 
in  that  beautiful  face,  choking  in  that  magnificent  throat,  as 
she  threw  back  her  small  head,  and  drew  in  her  breath,  and 
dashed  her  locks  back  from  her  temples,  as  if  seeking  for  fresh 
air.  She  shuddered,  reeled,  then  fell  weeping  on  the  bosom,  not 
of  Salvation  Yeo,  but  of  Amyas  Leigh. 

He  stood  still  a  minute  or  two,  bearing  that  fair  burden, 
ere  he  could  recollect  himself.  Then, — 

"  Ayacanora,  you  are  not  yet  mistress  of  yourself,  my  child. 
Yovi  were  better  to  go  down,  and  see  after  poor  Lucy,  and  we 
will  talk  about  it  all  to-morrow." 

She  gathered  herself  up  instantly,  and  with  eyes  fixed  on 
the  deck  slid  through  the  group,  and  disappeared  below. 

"Ah!"  said  Yeo,  with  a  tone  of  exquisite  sadness;  "the 
young  to  the  young !  Over  land  and  sea,  in  the  forests  and 
in  the  galleys,  in  battle  and  prison,  I  have  sought  her !  And 
now ! — 

"My  good  friend,"  said  Amyas,  "neither  are  you  master  of 
yourself  yet.  When  she  comes  round  again,  whom  will  she  love 
and  thank  but  you1?" 

"You,  sir!  She  owes  all  to  you;  and  so  do  I.  Let  me 
go  below,  sir.  My  old  wits  are  shaky.  Bless  you,  sir,  and 
thank  you  for  ever  and  ever ! " 

And  Yeo  grasped  Amyas's  hand,  and  went  down  to  his  cabin, 
from  which  he  did  not  reappear  for  many  hours. 

From  that  day  Ayacanora  was  a  new  creature.  The  thought 
that  she  was  an  Englishwoman ;  that  she,  the  wild  Indian,  was 
really  one  of  the  great  white  people  whom  she  had  learned  to 
worship,  carried  in  it  some  regenerating  change  :  she  regained 
all  her  former  stateliness,  and  with  it  a  self-restraint,  a  temper- 
ance, a  softness  which  she  had  never  shown  before.  Her  dislike 

2K 


498  HOW  YEO  FOUND  HIS  LITTLE  MAID.      [«-HAP.  xx\  n. 

to  Gary  ami  .Ia.-k  vanished  Modest  and  distant  as  ever,  she 
now  took  delight  in  learning  from  them  about  England  ami 
Kn-Ji.-h  people;  and  her  knowledge  of  our  customs  gained  much 
from  tin-  somewhat  fantastic  behaviour  which  Aniyas  thought 

..  for  reasons  of  his  own,  to  assume  toward  her.  He  assigned 
her  :i  handsome  cabin  to  herself,  always  addressed  her  as  Madam, 
ami  told  Gary,  Brimblecombe,  and  the  whole  crew  that  as  she 
was  a  lady  and  a  Christian,  he  expected  them  to  behave  to  her 
as  such.  So  there  was  as  much  bowing  and  scraping  on  the 
poop  as  if  it  had  been  a  prince's  court :  and  Ayacanora,  though 
sorely  puzzled  and  chagrined  at  Amyas's  new  solemnity,  con- 
trived to  imitate  it  pretty  well  (taking  for  granted  that  it  was 
the  right  thing);  and  having  tolerable  masters  in  the  art  of 
manners  (for  both  Amyas  and  Gary  were  thoroughly  well-bred 
men),  profited  much  in  all  things,  except  in  intimacy  with 
Amyas,  who  had,  cunning  fellow,  hit  on  this  parade  of  good 
manners,  as  a  fresh  means  of  increasing  the  distance  between 
him  and  her.  The  crew,  of  course,  though  they  were  a  little 
vexed  at  losing  their  pet,  consoled  themselves  with  the  thought 
that  she  was  a  "real  born  lady,"  and  Mr.  Oxenham's  daughter, 
too ;  and  there  was  not  a  man  on  board  who  did  not  prick  up 
his  ears  for  a  message  if  she  approached  him,  or  one  who  would 
not  have,  I  verily  believe,  jumped  overboard  to  do  her  a 
pleasure. 

Only  Yeo  kept  sorrowfully  apart.  He  never  looked  at  her, 
spoke  to  her,  met  her  even,  if  he  could.  His  dream  had  van- 
ished. He  had  found  her !  and  after  all,  she  did  not  care  for 
him  1  Why  should  she  ? 

But  it  was  hard  to  have  hunted  a  bubble  for  years,  and 
have  it  break  in  his  hand  at  last  "  Set  not  your  affections  on 
things  on  the  earth,"  murmured  Yeo  to  himself,  as  he  pored 
over  his  Bible,  in  the  vain  hope  of  forgetting  his  little  maid. 

But  why  did  Amyas  wish  to  increase  the  distance  between 
himself  and  Ayacanora  ?  Many  reasons  might  be  given  :  I  deny 
none  of  them.  But  the  main  one,  fantastic  as  it  may  seem, 
was  simply,  that  while  she  had  discovered  herself  to  be  an 
Englishwoman,  he  had  discovered  her  to  be  a  Spaniard.  If  her 
father  were  seven  times  John  Oxenham  (and  even  that  the  per- 
verse fellow  was  inclined  to  doubt),  her  mother  was  a  Spaniard 
— Pah !  one  of  the  accursed  race ;  kinswoman, — perhaps,  to  his 
brother's  murderers  !  His  jaundiced  eyes  could  see  nothing  but 
the  Spanish  element  in  her ;  or,  indeed,  in  anything  else.  As 
Gary  said  to  him  once,  using  a  cant  phrase  of  Sidney's,  which 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME.  499 

he  had  picked  up  from  Frank,  all  heaven  and  earth  were 
"  spauiolated "  to  him.  He  seemed  to  recollect  nothing  but 
that  Heaven  had  "  made  Spaniards  to  be  killed,  and  him  to  kill 
them."  If  he  had  not  been  the  most  sensible  of  John  Bulls, 
he  would  certainly  have  forestalled  the  monomania  of  that  young 
Frenchman  of  rank,  who,  some  eighty  years  after  him,  so  mad- 
dened his  brain  by  reading  of  the  Spanish  cruelties,  that  he 
threw  up  all  his  prospects  and  turned  captain  of  Filibusters  in 
the  West  Indies,  for  the  express  purpose  of  ridding  them  of 
their  tyrants;  and  when  a  Spanish  ship  was  taken,  used  to 
relinquish  the  whole  booty  to  his  crew,  and  reserve  for  himself 
only  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  his  victims'  dying  agonies. 

But  what  had  become  of  that  bird-like  song  of  Ayacanora's 
which  had  astonished  them  on  the  banks  of  the  Meta,  and 
cheered  them  many  a  time  in  their  anxious  voyage  down  the 
Magdalena  ?  -From  the  moment  that  she  found  out  her  English 
parentage,  it  stopped.  She  refused  utterly  to  sing  anything 
but  the  songs  and  psalms  which  she  picked  up  from  the  English. 
Whether  it  was  that  she  despised  it  as  a  relic  of  her  barbarism, 
or  whether  it  was  too  maddening  for  one  whose  heart  grew 
heavier  and  humbler  day  by  day,  the  nightingale  notes  were 
heard  no  more. 

So  homeward  they  ran,  before  a  favouring  south-west  breeze : 
but  long  ere  they  were  within  sight  of  land,  Lucy  Passmore 
was  gone  to  her  rest  beneath  the  Atlantic  waves. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

HOW   AMYAS    CAME    HOME   THE    THIRD   TIME. 

"  It  fell  about  the  Martinmas, 

When  nights  were  lang  and  mirk, 

That  wife's  twa  sons  cam  hame  again, 

And  their  hats  were  o'  the  birk. 

"It  did  na  graw  by  bush  or  brae, 

Nor  yet  in  ony  shough  ; 
But  by  the  gates  o'  paradise 
That  birk  grew  fair  eneugh." 

The  Wife  of  Usher's  Well. 

IT  is  the  evening  of  the  15th  of  February  1587,  and  Mrs.  Leigh 
(for  we  must  return  now  to  old  scenes  and  old  faces)  is  pacing 
slowly  up  and  down  the  terrace-walk  at  Burrough,  looking  out 
over  the  winding  river,  and  the  hazy  sand-hills,  and  the  wide 


.'•HO  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [,  HAP.  xxviu. 

western  sea,  as  she  has  done  every  evening,  be  it  fair  weather  <>r 
tiiul,  fur  three  weary  years.  Three  years  an<l  more  an-  pa.-t  and 
gone,  and  yet  no  news  of  Frank  and  Amyax,  and  the  gallant  ship 
and  all  the  gallant  souls  therein  ;  and  loving  eyes  in  Bide  f.  ml  "nd 
Appledore,  Clovelly  and  Ilfracombe,  have  grown  hollow  with 
watching  and  with  weeping  for  those  who  have  sailed  away  int<> 
the  West,  as  John  Oxenham  sailed  In-fore  them,  and  have  vanished 
like  a  dream,  as  he  did,  into  the  infinite  unknown.  Three  weary 
years,  and  yet  no  word.  Once  there  was  a  flush  of  In >}•<•,  and 
good  Sir  Richard  (without  Mrs.  Leigh's  knowledge)  had  sent  a 
horseman  posting  across  to  Plymouth,  when  the  news  arrived 
that  Drake,  Frobisher,  and-  Carlisle  had  returned  with  their 
squadron  from  the  Spanish  Main.  Alas  !  he  brought  back  great 
news,  glorious  news ;  news  of  the  sacking  of  Carthagena,  San 
Domingo,  Saint  Augustine ;  of  the  relief  of  Raleigh's  Virginian 
Colony :  but  no  news  of  the  Rose,  and  of  those  who  had  sailed 
in  her.  And  Mrs.  Leigh  bowed  her  head,  and  worshipped,  and 
said,  "  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away ;  blessed 
be  the  name  of  the  Lord  ! " 

Her  hair  was  now  grown  grey ;  her  cheeks  were  wan ;  her 
step  was  feeble.  She  seldom  went  from  home,  save  to  the 
church,  and  to  the  neighbouring  cottages.  She  never  mentioned 
her  sons'  names;  never  allowed  a  word  to  pass  her  lips,  which 
might  betoken  that  she  thought  of  them ;  but  every  day,  when 
the  tide  was  high,  and  red  flag  on  the  sandhills  showed  that 
there  was  water  over  the  bar,  she  paced  the  terrace-walk,  and 
devoured  with  greedy  eyes  the  sea  beyond,  in  search  of  the  sail 
which  never  came.  The  stately  ships  went  in  and  out  as  of  yore ; 
and  white  sails  hung  off  the  bar  for  many  an  hour,  day  after 
day,  month  after  month,  year  after  year :  but  an  instinct  within 
told  her  that  none  of  them  were  the  sails  she  sought.  She 
knew  that  ship,  every  line  of  her,  the  cut  of  every  cloth ;  she 
could  have  picked  it  out  miles  away,  among  a  whole  fleet,  but 
it  never  came,  and  Mrs.  Leigh  bowed  her  head  and  worshipped, 
and  went  to  and  fro  among  the  poor,  who  looked  on  her  as  an 
awful  being,  and  one  whom  God  had  brought  very  near  to 
Himself,  in  that  mysterious  heaven  of  sorrow  which  they  too 
knew  full  well.  And  lone  women  and  bed-ridden  men  looked 
in  her  steadfast  eyes,  and  loved  them,  and  drank  in  strength 
from  them ;  for  they  knew  (though  she  never  spoke  of  her  own 
grief)  that  she  had  gone  down  into  the  fiercest  depths  of  the 
fiery  furnace,  and  was  walking  there  unhurt  by  the  side  of  One 
whose  form  was  as  of  the  Son  of  God.  And  all  the  while  she 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  THE  THIRD  TIME.  501 

was  blaming  herself  for  her  "  earthly  "  longings,  and  confessing 
nightly  to  Heaven  that  weakness  which  she  could  not  shake  off, 
which  drew  her  feet  at  each  high  tide  to  the  terrace-walk 
beneath  the  row  of  wind-dipt  trees. 

But  this  evening  Northam  is  in  a  stir.  The  pebble  ridge 
is  thundering  far  below,  as  it  thundered  years  ago  :  but  Northam 
is  noisy  enough  without  the  rolling  of  the  surge.  The  tower  is 
rocking  with  the  pealing  bells  :  the  people  are  all  in  the  streets 
shouting  and  singing  round  bonfires.  They  are  burning  the 
pope  in  effigy,  drinking  to  the  queen's  health,  and  "  So  perish 
all  her  enemies  ! "  The  hills  are  red  with  bonfires  in  every 
village ;  and  far  away,  the  bells  of  Bideford  are  answering  the 
bells  of  Northam,  as  they  answered  them  seven  years  ago,  when 
Amyas  returned  from  sailing  round  the  world.  For  this  day 
has  come  the  news  that  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  is  beheaded  in 
Fotheringay ;  and  all  England,  like  a  dreamer  who  shakes  ott' 
some  hideous  nightmare,  has  leapt  up  in  one  tremendous  shout 
of  jubilation,  as  the  terror  and  the  danger  of  seventeen  anxious 
years  is  lifted  from  its  heart  for  ever. 

Yes,  she  is  gone,  to  answer  at  a  higher  tribunal  than  that  of 
the  Estates  of  England,  for  all  the  noble  English  blood  which  has 
been  poured  out  for  her ;  for  all  the  noble  English  hearts  whom 
she  has  tempted  into  treachery,  rebellion,  and  murder.  Eliza- 
beth's own  words  have  been  fulfilled  at  last,  after  years  of 
long-suffering ; — 

' '  The  daughter  of  debate, 

That  discord  aye  doth  sow, 
Hath  reap'd  no  gain  where  former  rule 
Hath  taught  still  peace  to  grow." 

And  now  she  can  do  evil  no  more.  Murder  and  adultery, 
the  heart  which  knew  no  forgiveness,  the  tongue  which  could 
not  speak  truth  even  for  its  own  interest,  have  past  and  are 
perhaps  atoned  for ;  and  her  fair  face  hangs  a  pitiful  dream  in 
the  memory  even  of  those  who  knew  that  either  she,  or  England, 
must  perish. 

"  Nothing  is  left  of  her 
Now,  but  pure  womanly." 

And  Mrs.  Leigh,  Protestant  as  she  is,  breathes  a  prayer, 
that  the  Lord  may  have  mercy  on  that  soul,  as  "  clear  as 
diamond,  and  as  hard,"  as  she  said  of  herself.  That  last  scene, 
too,  before  the  fatal  block — it  could  not  be  altogether  acting. 
Mrs.  Leigh  had  learned  many  a  priceless  lesson  in  the  last  seven 
years ;  might  not  Mary  Stuart  have  learned  something  in  seven- 


HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  f.-n.\i-.  xxvm. 


teent  And  Mrs.  Lei^h  li.nl  l>een  a  courtier,  and  knew,  as  far  as 
a  chaste  Englishwoman  could  know  (which  even  in  those  coarser 
days  was  not  very  much),  of  that  godless  style  of  French  o>nrt 
profligacy  in  which  poor  Mary  had  )iad  her  youthful  training. 
amid  the  Medicis,  and  the  Guises,  and  Cardinal  Lorraine  ;  ami 
she  shuddered,  and  sighed  to  herself  —  "To  whom  little  is  givm. 
of  them  shall  little  be  required  !"  But  still  the  bells  pealed  on 
and  would  not  cease. 

What  w:us  that  which  answered  them  from  afar  out  of  tin- 
fast  darkening  twilight  1  A  flash,  and  then  the  thunder  of  a 
gun  at  sea. 

Mrs.  Leigh  stopped.  The  flash  was  right  outside  the  bar. 
A  ship  in  distress  it  could  not  be.  The  wind  was  light  and 
westerly.  It  was  a  high  spring-tide,  as  evening  floods  are 
always  there.  What  could  it  be  ?  Another  flash,  another  gun. 
The  noisy  folks  of  Northam  were  hushed  at  once,  and  all  hur- 
ried into  the  churchyard  which  looks  down  on  the  broad  flats 
and  the  river. 

There  was  a  gallant  ship  outside  the  bar.  She  was  runninj: 
in,  too,  with  all  sails  set.  A  large  ship  ;  nearly  a  thousand 
_tons  she  might  be  ;  but  not  of  English  rig.  What  was  the 
meaning  of  it  1  A  Spanish  cruiser  about  to  make  reprisals  for 
Drake's  raid  along  the  Cadiz  shore  !  Not  that,  surely.  The 
Don  had  no  fancy  for  such  unscientific  and  dare-devil  warfare. 
If  he  came,  he  woidd  come  with  admiral,  rear-admiral,  and 
vice-admiral,  transports,  and  avisos,  according  to  the  best- 
approved  methods,  articles,  and  science  of  war.  What  could  she 
be? 

Easily,  on  the  flowing  tide,  and  fair  western  wind,  she  has 
slipped  up  the  channel  between  the  two  lines  of  sandhill.  She 
i>  almost  off  Appledore  now.  She  is  no  enemy;  and  if  she  be 
a  foreigner,  she  is  a  daring  one,  for  she  has  never  veiled  her 
topsails,  —  and  that,  all  know,  every  foreign  ship  must  do  within 
sight  of  an  English  port,  or  stand  the  chance  of  war;  as  the 
Spanish  admiral  found,  who  many  a  year  since  was  sent  in  time 
of  peace  to  fetch  home  from  Flanders  Anne  of  Austria,  Philip 
the  Second's  last  wife. 

For  in  his  pride  he  sailed  into  Plymouth  Sound  without 
veiling  topsails,  or  lowering  the  flag  of  Spain.  Whereon,  like 
lion  from  his  den,  out  rushed  John  Hawkins  the  port  Admiral, 
in  his  famous  Jesus  of  Lubec  (afterwards  lost  in  the  San  Juan 
d'Ulloa  fight),  and  without  argument  or  parley,  sent  a  shot 
between  the  admiral's  masts;  which  not  producing  the  desired 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  THE  THIRD  TIME.  503 

effect,  alongside  ran  bold  Captain  John,  and  with  his  next  shot, 
so  says  his  son,  an  eye-witness,  "lackt  the  admiral  through  and 
through;"  whereon  down  came  the  offending  flag;  and  due 
apologies  were  made  :  but  not  accepted  for  a  long  time  by  the 
stout  guardian  of  her  Majesty's  honour.  And  if  John  Hawkins 
did  as  much  for  a  Spanish  fleet  in  time  of  peace,  there  is  more 
than  one  old  sea-dog  in  Appledore  who  will  do  as  much  for  a 
single  ship  in  time  of  war,  if  he  can  find  even  an  iron  pot  to  burn 
powder  withal. 

The  strange  sail  passed  out  of  sight  behind  the  hill  of 
Appledore ;  and  then  there  rose  into  the  quiet  evening  air  a 
cheer,  as  from  a  hundred  throats.  Mrs.  Leigh  stood  still,  and 
listened.  Another  gun  thundered  among  the  hills;  and  then 
another  cheer. 

It  might  have  been  twenty  minutes  before  the  vessel  hove 
in  sight  again  round  the  dark  rocks  of  the  Hubbastone,  as  she 
turned  up  the  Bideford  river.  Mrs.  Leigh  had  stood  that  whole 
time  perfectly  motionless,  a  pale  and  scarcely  breathing  statue, 
her  eyes  fixed  upon  the  Viking's  rock. 

Eound  the  Hubbastone  she  came  at  last.  There  was  music 
on  board,  drums  and  fifes,  shawms  and  trumpets,  which  wakened 
ringing  echoes  from  every  knoll  of  wood  and  slab  of  slate.  And 
as  she  opened  full  on  Burrough  House,  another  cheer  burst  from 
her  crew,  and  rolled  up  to  the  hills  from  off  the  silver  waters 
far  below,  full  a  mile  away. 

Mrs.  Leigh  walked  quickly  toward  the  house,  and  called  her 
maid, — 

"Grace,  bring  me  my  hood.  Master  Amyas  is  come 
home!" 

"  No,  surely  ?  0  joyful  sound  !  Praised  and  blessed  be  the 
Lord,  then ;  praised  and  blessed  be  the  Lord  !  But,  Madam, 
however  did  you  know  that  ?" 

"  I  heard  his  voice  on  the  river ;  but  I  did  not  hear  Mr. 
Frank's  with  him,  Grace  ! " 

"  Oh,  be  sure,  Madam,  where  the  one  is  the  other  is. 
They'd  never  part  company.  Both  come  home  or  neither,  I'll 
warrant.  Here's  your  hood,  Madam." 

And  Mrs.  Leigh,  with  Grace  behind  her,  started  with  rapid 
steps  towards  Bideford. 

Was  it  true  ?  Was  it  a  dream  ?  Had  the  divine  instinct 
of  the  mother  enabled  her  to  recognise  her  child's  voice  among 
all  the  rest,  and  at  that  enormous  distance ;  or  was  her  brain 
turning  with  the  long  effort  of  her  supernatural  calm  ? 


504  HOW  AMY  AS  CAME  HOME  CHAP,  xxvni. 

Grace  asked  hereolf,  in  her  own  way,  that  same  (|ur>tii.n 
many  a  time  between  Burrough  and  Bideford.  When  they 
:irri\ed  mi  the  quay  the  question  answered  itself. 

As  they  eame  ilo\vn  liriiL-vland  Street  (where  afterwards  tin- 
tobacco  warehouses  for  the  Virginia  trade  used  to  stand,  l>ut 
which  then  was  but  a  row  of  rope-walks  and  sailmakers'  shops), 
they  eoiild  see  the  strange  ship  already  at  anchor  in  the  river. 
They  had  just  reached  the  lower  end  of  the  street,  when  round 
the  corner  swept  a  great  mob,  sailors,  women,  'prentices,  hur- 
rahing, questioning,  weeping,  laughing:  Mrs.  Leigh  stopped; 
and  liehold,  they  stopped  also. 

"  Here  she  is  !"  shouted  some  one ;  "  here's  his  mother !" 

"His  mother?  Not  their  mother!"  said  Mrs.  Leigh  to 
herself,  and  turned  very  pale;  but  that  heart  was  long  past 
breaking. 

The  next  moment  the  giant  head  and  shoulders  of  Amyas, 
far  .above  the  crowd,  swept  round  the  corner. 

"Make  a  way!  Make  room  for  Madam  Leigh!" — And 
Amyas  fell  on  his  knees  at  her  feet. 

She  threw  her  arms  round  his  neck,  and  bent  her  fair  head 
over  his,  while  sailors,  'prentices,  and  coarse  harbour-women 
were  hushed  into  holy  silence,  and  made  a  ring  round  the 
mother  and  the  son. 

Mrs.  Leigh  asked  no  question.  She  saw  that  Amyas  was 
alone. 

At  last  he  whispered,  "I  would  have  died  to  save  him, 
mother,  if  I  could." 

"  You  need  not  tell  me  that,  Amyas  Leigh,  my  son." 

Another  silence. 

"How  did  he  die?"  whispered  Mrs.  Leijrh. 

"  He  is  a  martyr.     He  died  in  the " 

Amyas  could  say  no  more. 

"The  Inquisition?" 

"Yes." 

A  strong  shudder  passed  through  Mrs.  Leigh's  frame,  and 
then  she  lifted  up  her  head. 

"  Come  home,  Amyas.  I  little  expected  such  an  honour — 
such  an  honour — ha !  ha !  and  such  a  fair  young  martyr,  too ; 
a  very  St.  Stephen  !  God,  have  mercy  on  me ;  and  let  me  not 
go  mad  before  these  folk,  when  I  ought  to  be  thanking  Thee  for 
Thy  great  mercies  !  Amyas,  who  is  that  ? " 

And  she  pointed  to  Ayacanora,  who  stood  close  In-hind 
Amyas,  watching  with  keen  eyes  the  whole. 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  THE  THIRD  TIME.  505 

"  She  is  a  poor  wild  Indian  girl — my  daughter,  I  call  her. 
I  will  tell  you  her  story  hereafter." 

"  Your  daughter  1  My  grand-daughter,  then.  Come  hither, 
maiden,  and  be  my  grand-daughter." 

Ayacanora  came  obedient,  and  knelt  down,  because  she  had 
seen  Amyas  kneel. 

"  God  forbid,  child  !  kneel  not  to  me.  Come  home,  and  let 
me  know  whether  I  am  sane  or  mazed,  alive  or  dead." 

And  drawing  her  hood  over  her  face,  she  turned  to  go  back, 
holding  Amyas  tight  by  one  hand,  and  Ayacanora  by  the  other. 

The  crowd  let  them  depart  some  twenty  yards  in  respectful 
silence,  and  then  burst  into  a  cheer  which  made  the  old  town 
ring. 

Mrs.  Leigh  stopped  suddenly. 

"I  had  forgotten,  Amyas.  You  must  not  let  me  stand  in 
the  way  of  your  duty.  Where  are  your  men  1 " 

"  Kissed  to  death  by  this  time ;  all  of  them,  that  is,  who 
are  left." 

"Left?" 

"We  went  out  a  hundred,  mother,  and  we  came  home 
forty-four — if  we  are  at  home.  Is  it  a  dream,  mother1?  Is 
this  you  1  and  this  old  Bridgeland  Street  again  ?  As  I  live, 
there  stands  Evans  the  smith,  at  his  door,  tankard  in  hand,  as 
he  did  when  I  was  a  boy  ! " 

The  brawny  smith  came  across  the  street  to  them;  but 
stopped  when  he  saw  Amyas,  but  no  Frank. 

"  Better  one  than  neither,  Madam  ! "  said  he  trying  a  rough 
comfort.  Amyas  shook  his  hand  as  he  passed  him ;  but  Mrs. 
Leigh  neither  heard  nor  saw  him,  nor  any  one. 

"Mother,"  said  Amyas,  when  they  were  now  past  the 
causeway,  "we  are  rich  for  life." 

"Yes;  a  martyr's  death  was  the  fittest  for  him." 

"  I  have  brought  home  treasure  untold." 

"What,  my  boy?" 

"  Treasure  untold.     Gary  has  promised  to  see  to  it  to-night." 

"  Very  well.  I  would  that  he  had  slept  at  our  house.  He 
was  a  kindly  lad,  and  loved  Frank.  When  did  he  1 — 

"  Three  years  ago,  and  more.  Within  two  months  of  our 
sailing." 

"Ah!     Yes,  he  told  me  so." 

"  Told  you  so  1 " 

"  Yes ;  the  dear  lad  has  often  come  to  see  me  in  my  sleep  ; 
but  you  never  came.  I  guessed  how  it  was — as  it  should  be." 


."•or,  1 1 <>\V  AMYAS  CAME  HOME         [CHAP,  xxvnr. 

"  But  I  loved  you  none  the  leas,  mother ! " 

"  I  know  tliat,  too :  but  you  were  busy  with  the  men,  you 
know,  sweet;  BO  your  spirit  could  not  come  roving  home  like  his, 
wliidi  \va^  tin-.  Vi's  all  :w  it  should  be.  My  maid,  and  dn 
\«u  in»t  tiinl  it  cold  hriv  in  Ki inland,  after  those  hot  regions?" 

"Ayacanora's  heart  is  warm;  she  does  not  think  about 

cold." 

"  Warm  ?  perhaps  you  will  warm  my  heart  for  me,  then." 

"  Would  God  I  could  do  it,  mother ! "  said  Amyas,  half 
reproachfully. 

Mrs.  Leigh  looked  up  in  his  face,  and  burst  into  a  violent 
flood  of  tears. 

"  Sinful !  sinful  that  I  am  ! " 

"  Blessed  creature  ! "  cried  Amyas,  "  if  you  speak  so  I  shall 
go  mad.  Mother,  mother,  I  have  been  dreading  this  meeting 
for  months.  It  has  been  a  nightmare  hanging  over  me  like  a 
horrible  black  thunder-cloud ;  a  great  cliff  miles  high,  with  its 
top  hid  in  the  clouds,  which  I  had  to  climb,  and  dare  not.  I  have 
longed  to  leap  overboard,  and  flee  from  it  like  a  coward  into  the 
depths  of  the  sea. — The  thought  that  you  might  ask  me 
whether  I  was  not  my  brother's  keeper — that  you  might 
require  his  blood  at  my  hands — and  now,  now  !  when  it  comes  ! 
to  find  you  all  love,  and  trust,  and  patience — mother,  mother, 
it's  more  than  I  can  bear !"  and  he  wept  violently. 

Mrs.  Leigh  knew  enough  of  Amyas  to  know  that  any  burst 
of  this  kind,  from  his  quiet  nature,  betokened  some  very  fearful 
struggle  ;  and  the  loving  creature  forgot  everything  instantly,  in 
the  one  desire  to  soothe  him. 

And  soothe  him  she  did ;  and  home  the  two  went,  arm  in 
arm  together,  while  Ayacanora  held  fast,  like  a  child,  by  the 
skirt  of  Mrs.  Leigh's  cloak.  The  self-help  and  daring  of  the 
forest  nymph  had  given  place  to  the  trembling  modesty  of  the 
young  girl,  suddenly  cast  on  shore  in  a  new  world,  among 
strange  faces,  strange  hopes,  and  strange  fears  also. 

"Will  your  mother  love  me?"  whispered  she  to  Amyas,  as 
she  went  in. 

"Yes;  but  you  must  do  what  she  tells  you."  Ayacanora 
pouted. 

"  She  will  laugh  at  me,  because  I  am  wild." 

"  She  never  laughs  at  any  one." 

"  Humph  ! "  said  Ayacanora.  "  Well,  I  shall  not  l>e  afraid  of 
her.  I  thought  she  would  have  been  tall  like  you ;  but  she  is 
not  even  as  big  as  me." 


CHAP,  xxvnr.]  THE  THIRD  TIME  507 

This  hardly  sounded  hopeful  for  the  prospect  of  Ayacanora's 
obedience ;  but  ere  twenty-four  hours  had  passed,  Mrs.  Leigh 
had  won  her  over  utterly ;  and  she  explained  her  own  speech 
by  saying  that  she  thought  so  great  a  man  ought  to  have  a 
great  mother.  She  had  expected,  poor  thing,  in  her  simplicity, 
some  awful  princess  with  a  frown  like  Juno's  own,  and  found 
instead  a  healing  angel. 

Her  story  was  soon  told  to  Mrs.  Leigh,  who  of  course, 
woman-like,  would  not  allow  a  doubt  as  to  her  identity.  And 
the  sweet  mother  never  imprinted  a  prouder  or  fonder  kiss  upon 
her  son's  forehead,  than  that  with  which  she  repaid  his  simple 
declaration,  that  he  had  kept  unspotted,  like  a  gentleman  and  a 
Christian,  the  soul  which  God  had  put  into  his  charge. 

"  Then  you  have  forgiven  me,  mother  1" 

"  Years  ago  I  said  in  this  same  room,  what  should  I  render 
to  the  Lord  for  having  given  me  two  such  sons  1  And  in  this 
room  I  say  it  once  again.  Tell  me  all  about  my  other  son,  that 
I  may  honour  him  as  I  honour  you." 

And  then,  with  the  iron  nerve  which  good  women  have,  she 
made  him  give  her  every  detail  of  Lucy  Passmore's  story,  and 
of  all  which  had  happened  from  the  day  of  their  sailing  to  that 
luckless  night  at  Guayra.  And  when  it  was  done,  she  led 
Ayacanora  out,  and  began  busying  herself  about  the  girl's  com- 
forts, as  calmly  as  if  Frank  and  Amyas  had  been  sleeping  in 
their  cribs  in  the  next  room. 

But  she  had  hardly  gone  upstairs,  when  a  loud  knock  at 
the  door  was  followed  by  its  opening  hastily ;  and  into  the  hall 
burst,  regardless  of  etiquette,  the  tall  and  stately  figure  of  Sir 
Richard  Grenvile. 

Amyas  dropped  on  his  knees  instinctively.  The  stern 
warrior  was  quite  unmanned ;  and  as  he  bent  over  his  godson, 
a  tear  dropped  from  that  iron  cheek,  upon  the  iron  cheek  of 
Amyas  Leigh. 

"  My  lad  !  my  glorious  lad  !  and  where  have  you  been  1 
Get  up,  and  tell  me  all.  The  sailors  told  me  a  little,  but  I  must 
hear  every  word.  I  knew  you  would  do  something  grand.  I 
told  your  mother  you  were  too  good  a  workman  for  God  to  throw 
away.  Now,  let  me  have  the  whole  story.  Why,  I  am  out  of 
breath  !  To  tell  truth,  I  ran  three-parts  of  the  way  hither." 

And  down  the  two  sat,  and  Amyas  talked  long  into  the 
night ;  while  Sir  Richard,  his  usual  stateliness  recovered,  smiled 
stern  approval  at  each  deed  of  daring ;  and  when  all  was  ended, 
answered  with  something  like  a  sigh — 


.r>OS  HOW  AMYAS  CAME  HOME  [CHAP.  XTvm. 

"  Would  God  that  I  had  been  with  you  every  step  !  Would 
God,  at  least,  that  I  could  show  as  good  a  three-years'  log-book, 
Amyas,  my  la«l  I" 

"You  can  show  a  better  one,  I  doubt  not." 

"II  umpli  !  With  the  exception  of  one  paltry  Spanish  prize, 
I  don't  know  that  the  queen  is  the  better,  or  her  enemies  the 
worse,  for  me,  since  we  parted  last  in  Dublin  city." 

"  You  are  too  modest,  sir." 

"Would  that  I  were;  but  I  got  on  in  Ireland,  I  found,  no 
better  than  my  neighbours;  and  so  came  home  again,  to  timl 
that  while  I  had  been  wasting  my  time  in  that  land  of  misrule, 
Raleigh  had  done  a  deed  to  which  I  can  see  no  end.  For,  la<l, 
he  has  found  (or  rather  his  two  captains,  Amadas  and  Barlow, 
have  found  for  him)  between  Florida  and  Newfoundland,  a 
country,  the  like  of  which,  I  believe,  there  is  not  on  the  earth  for 
climate  and  fertility.  Whether  there  be  gold  there,  I  know 
not,  and  it  matters  little ;  for  there  is  all  else  on  earth  that 
man  can  want;  furs,  timber,  rivers,  game,  sugar-canes,  corn, 
fruit,  and  every  commodity  which  France,  Spain,  or  Italy  can 
yield,  wild  in  abundance ;  the  savages  civil  enough  for  savages, 
and,  in  a  word,  all  which  goes  to  the  making  of  as  noble  a  jewel 
as  her  Majesty's  crown  can  wear.  The  people  call  it  Wingamla- 
coa;  but  we,  after  her  Majesty,  Virginia." 

"  You  have  been  there,  then  1" 

"The  year  before  last,  lad;  and  left  there  Half  Lane, 
Amadas,  and  some  twenty  gentlemen,  and  ninety  men,  and, 
moreover,  some  money  of  my  own,  and  some  of  old  Will  Sal- 
terne's,  which  neither  of  us  will  ever  see  again.  For  the  colony, 
I  know  not  how,  quarrelled  with  the  Indians  (I  fear  I  too  was 
over-sharp  with  some  of  them  for  stealing — if  I  was,  God  forgive 
me  !),  and  could  not,  forsooth,  keep  themselves  alive  for  twelve 
months ;  so  that  Drake,  coming  back  from  his  last  West  Indian 
voyage,  after  giving  them  all  the  help  he  could,  had  to  bring 
the  whole  party  home.  And  if  you  will  believe  it,  the  faint- 
hearted fellows  had  not  been  gone  a  fortnight,  before  I  was  back 
again  with  three  ships  and  all  that  they  could  want.  And  never 
was  I  more  wroth  in  my  life,  when  all  I  found  was  the  ruins  of 
their  huts,  which  (so  rich  is  the  growth  there)  were  already  full 
of  great  melons,  and  wild  deer  feeding  thereon — a  pretty  sight 
enough,  but  not  what  I  wanted  just  then.  So  back  I  came; 
and  being  in  no  overgood  temper,  vented  my  humours  on  the 
Portugals  at  the  Azores,  and  had  hard  fights  and  small  booty. 
So  there  the  matter  stands,  but  not  for  long ;  for  shame  it  were 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  THE  THIRD  TIME.  509 

if  such  a  paradise,  once  found  by  Britons,  should  fall  into  the 
hands  of  any  but  her  Majesty;  and  we  will  try  again  this 
spring,  if  men  and  money  can  be  found.  Eh,  lad1?" 

"But  the  prize?" 

"  Ah  !  that  was  no  small  make- weight  to  our  disasters,  after 
all.  I  sighted  her  for  six  days'  sail  from  the  American  coast : 
but  ere  we  could  lay  her  aboard  it  fell  dead  calm.  Never  a 
boat  had  I  on  board — they  were  all  lost  in  a  gale  of  wind — and 
the  other  ships  were  becalmed  two  leagues  astern  of  me.  There 
was  no  use  lying  there  and  pounding  her  till  she  sank;  so  I 
called  the  carpenter,  got  up  all  the  old  chests,  and  with  them 
and  some  spars  we  floated  ourselves  alongside,  and  only  just  in 
time.  For  the  last  of  us  had  hardly  scrambled  up  into  the 
chains,  when  our  crazy  Noah's  ark  went  all  aboard,  and  sank  at 
the  side,  so  that  if  we  had  been  minded  to  run  away,  Amyas, 
we  could  not ;  whereon,  judging  valour  to  be  the  better  part  of 
discretion  (as  I  usually  do),  we  fell  to  with  our  swords  and  had 
her  in  five  minutes,  and  fifty  thousand  pounds'  worth  in  her, 
which  set  up  my  purse  again,  and  Raleigh's  too,  though  I  fear 
it  has  run  out  again  since  as  fast  as  it  ran  in." 

And  so  ended  Sir  Richard's  story. 

Amyas  went  the  next  day  to  Salterne,  and  told  his  tale. 
The  old  man  had  heard  the  outlines  of  it  already  :  but  he  calmly 
bade  him  sit  down,  and  listened  to  all,  his  chin  upon  his  hand, 
his  elbows  on  his  knees.  His  cheek  never  blanched,  his  lips 
never  quivered  throughout.  Only  when  Amyas  came  to  Rose's 
marriage,  he  heaved  a  long  breath,  as  if  a  weight  was  taken 
off  his  heart. 

"  Say  that  again,  sir  !" 

Amyas  said  it  again,  and  then  went  on ;  faltering,  he  hinted 
at  the  manner  of  her  death. 

"  Go  on,  sir  !  Why  are  you  afraid  1  There  is  nothing  to 
be  ashamed  of  there,  is  there  1 "  • 

Amyas  told  the  whole  with  downcast  eyes,  and  then  stole  a 
look  at  his  hearer's  face.  There  was  no  sign  of  emotion  :  only 
somewhat  of  a  proud  smile  curled  the  corners  of  that  iron  mouth. 

"And  her  husband?"  asked  he,  after  a  pause. 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  have  to  tell  you,  sir,  that  the  man  still 
lives." 

"Still  lives,  sir?" 

"  Too  true,  as  far  as  I  know.  That  it  was  not  my  fault,  my 
story  bears  me  witness." 

"  Sir,  I  never  doubted  your  will  to  kill  him.     Still  lives, 


510  Il"\\    AMVAS  i-AMK  HOME  [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

you  say?  Well,  so  do  rats  and  adders.  And  now,  I  hiippose, 
Captain  L(  iurli,  your  woi-hip  is  minded  to  recruit  yourself  .,11 
slmiv  ;i  while  with  the  lair  lass  whom  you  liave  brought  homo  (as 
I  hear)  before  having  another  dash  at  the  devil  and  his  kin  !" 

"Do  not  mention  that  young  lady's  name  with  mine,  sir; 
she  is  no  more  to  me  than  she  is  to  you;  for  she  has  Spanish 
blood  in  her  veins." 

Salterne  smiled  grimly. 

"  But  I  am  minded  at  least  to  do  one  thing,  Mr.  Salterne, 
and  that  is,  to  kill  Spaniards,  in  fair  fight,  by  land  and  sea, 
wheresoever  I  shall  meet  them.  And,  therefore,  I  stay  not 
long  here,  whithersoever  I  may  be  bound  next/' 

"  Well,  sir,  when  you  start,  come  to  me  for  a  ship,  and  the 
best  I  have  is  at  your  service ;  and,  if  she  do  not  suit,  command 
her  to  be  fitted  as  you  like  best;  and  I,  William  Salterne,  will 
pay  for  all  which  you  shall  command  to  be  done." 

"  .My  good  sir,  I  have  accounts  to  square  with  you  after  a 
very  different  fashion.  As  part-adventurer  in  the  Rose,  I  have 
to  deliver  to  you  your  share  of  the  treasure  which  I  have  brought 
home." 

"  My  share,  sir  1  If  I  understood  you,  my  ship  was  lost  off 
the  coast  of  the  Carraccas  three  years  agone,  and  this  treasure 
was  all  won  since1?" 

"True;  but  you,  as  an  adventurer  in  the  expedition,  have 
a  just  claim  for  your  share,  and  will  receive  it." 

"  Captain  Leigh,  you  are,  I  see,  as  your  father  was  before 
you,  a  just  and  upright  Christian  man  :  but,  sir,  this  money  is 
none  of  mine,  for  it  was  won  in  no  ship  of  mine. — Hear  me, 
sir !  And  if  it  had  been,  and  that  ship  " — (he  could  not  speak 
her  name) — "  lay  safe  and  sound  now  by  Bideford  quay,  do  you 
think,  sir,  that  William  Salterne  is  the  man  to  make  money  out 
of  his  daughter's  sin  and  sorrow,  and  to  handle  the  price  of 
blood  1  No,  sir  !  You  went  like  a  gentleman  to  seek  her,  and 
like  a  gentleman,  as  all  the  world  knows,  you  have  done  your 
best,  and  I  thank  you :  but  our  account  ends  there.  The 
treasure  is  yours,  sir ;  I  have  enough,  and  more  than  enough, 
and  none,  God  help  me,  to  leave  it  to,  but  greedy  and  needy 
kin,  who  will  be  rather  the  worse  than  the  better  for  it.  And 
if  I  have  a  claim  in  law  for  aught,  which  I  know  not,  neither 
shall  ever  ask — why,  if  you  are  not  too  proud,  accept  that  claim 
as  a  plain  burgher's  thank-offering  to  you,  sir,  for  a  great  and 
a  noble  love  which  you  and  your  brother  have  shown  to  one 
who,  though  I  say  it,  to  my  shame,  was  not  worthy  thereof." 


CHAP.  XX VIII.  J  THE  THIRD  TIME.  511 

"  She  was  worthy  of  that  and  more,  sir.  For  if  she  sinned 
like  a  woman,  she  died  like  a  saint." 

"Yes,  sir!"  answered  the  old  man  with  a  proud  smile; 
"  she  had  the  right  English  blood  in  her,  I  doubt  not ;  and 
showed  it  at  the  last.  But  now,  sir,  no  more  of  this.  When 
you  need  a  ship,  mine  is  at  your  service ;  till  then,  sir,  farewell, 
and  God  be  with  you." 

And  the  old  man  rose,  and  with  an  unmoved  countenance, 
bowed  Amyas  to  the  door.  Amyas  went  back  and  told  Gary, 
bidding  him  take  half  of  Salterne's  gift :  but  Gary  swore  a 
great  oath  that  he  would  have  none  of  it. 

"  Heir  of  Clovelly,  Amyas,  and  want  to  rob  you  ?  I  who 
have  lost  nothing, — you  who  have  lost  a  brother!  God  forbid 
that  I  should  ever  touch  a  farthing  beyond  my  original  share  !" 

That  evening  a  messenger  from  Bideford  came  running 
breathless  up  to  Burrough  Court.  The  authorities  wanted 
Amyas's  immediate  attendance,  for  he  was  one  of  the  last,  it 
seemed,  who  had  seen  Mr.  Salterne  alive. 

Salterne  had  gone  over,  as  soon  as  Amyas  departed,  to  an 
old  acquaintance ;  signed  and  sealed  his  will  in  their  presence 
with  a  firm  and  cheerful  countenance,  refusing  all  condolence ; 
and  then  gone  home,  and  locked  himself  into  Rose's  room. 
Supper -time  came,  and  he  did  not  appe'ar.  The  apprentices 
could  not  make  him  answer,  and  at  last  called  in  the  neighbours, 
and  forced  the  door.  Salterne  was  kneeling  by  his  daughter's 
bed ;  his  head  was  npon  the  coverlet ;  his  Prayer-book  was  open 
before  him  at  the  Burial  Service ;  his  hands  were  clasped  in 
supplication ;  but  he  was  dead  and  cold. 

His  will  lay  by  him.  He  had  left  all  his  property  among 
his  poor  relations,,  saving  and  excepting  all  money,  etc.,  due  to 
him  as  owner  and  part-adventurer  of  the  ship  Rose,  and  his  new 
bark  of  three  hundred  tons  burden,  now  lying  East-the-water ; 
all  which  was  bequeathed  to  Captain  Amyas  Leigh,  on  condi- 
tion that  he  should  re-christen  that  bark  the  Vengeance,  fit  her 
out  with  part  of  the  treasure,  and  with  her  sail  once  more 
against  the  Spaniard,  before  three  years  were  past. 

And  this  was  the  end  of  William  Salterne,  merchant. 


.Ml.'  ll« '  \V   TIIK   YlKi.  IMA    FLEET  WAS  [cilAF.  XXIX. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

HOW  TIIK  VIRGINIA  FLEET  WAS  STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S 
COMMAND. 

A          "  The  daughter  of  debate, 

That  discord  still  doth  sow, 
Shall  reap  no  gain  where  former  rule 

Hath  taught  still  peace  to  grow. 
No  foreign  banish'd  wight 
Shall  anker  in  this  port ; 
Our  realm  it  brooks  no  stranger's  force  ; 
Let  them  elsewhere  resort." 

Qu.  Elizabeth.     1569. 

AND  now  Amyas  is  settled  quietly  at  home  again ;  and  for  the 
next  twelve  months  little  passes  worthy  of  record  in  these  pages. 
Yeo  has  installed  himself  as  major  domo,  with  no  very  definite 
functions,  save  those  of  walking  about  everywhere  at  Amyas's 
heels  like  a  lank  grey  wolf-hound,  and  spending  his  evenings  at 
the  fireside,  as  a  true  old  sailor  does,  with  his  Bible  on  his  knee, 
and  his  hands  busy  in  manufacturing  numberless  nick-nacks, 
useful  and  useless,  for  every  member  of  the  family,  and  above 
all  for  Ayacanora,  whom  he  insults  every  week  by  humbly 
offering  some  toy  only  fit  for  a  child ;  at  which  she  pouts,  and 
is  reproved  by  Mrs.  Leigh,  and  then  takes  the  gift,  and  puts  it 
away  never  to  look  at  it  again.  For  her  whole  soul  is  set  upon 
being  an  English  maid ;  and  she  runs  about  all  day  long  after 
Mrs.  Leigh,  insisting  upon  learning  the  mysteries  of  the  kitchen 
and  the  stillroom,  and,  above  all,  the  art  of  making  clothes  for 
herself,  and  at  last  for  everybody  in  Northam.  For  first,  she 
will  be  a  good  housewife,  like  Mrs.  Leigh ;  and  next  a  new  idea 
has  dawned  on  her ;  that  of  helping  others.  To  the  boundless 
hospitality  of  the  savage  she  has  been  of  course  accustomed : 
but  to  give  to  those  who  can  give  nothing  in  return,  is  a  new 
thought.  She  sees  Mrs.  Leigh  spending  every  spare  hour  in 
working  for  the  poor,  and  visiting  them  in  their  cottages.  She 
sees  Amyas,  after  public  thanks  in  church  for  his  safe  return, 
giving  away  money,  food,  what  not,  in  Northam,  Appledore, 
and  Bideford ;  buying  cottages  and  making  them  almshouses  for 
worn-out  mariners;  and  she  is  told  that  this  is  his  thank- 
offering  to  God.  She  is  puzzled  ;  her  notion  of  a  thank-offering 
was  rather  that  of  the  Indians,  and  indeed  of  the  Spaniards, — 


CHAP.  XXIX.]      STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  513 

sacrifices  of  human  victims,  and  the  bedizenment  of  the  Great 
Spirit's  sanctuary  with  their  skulls  and  bones.  Not  that  Amyas, 
as  a  plain  old-fashioned  churchman,  was  unmindful  of  the  good 
old  instinctive  rule,  that  something  should  be  given  to  the 
Church  itself;  for  the  vicar  of  Northam  was  soon  resplendent 
with  a  new  surplice,  and  what  was  more,  the  altar  with  a 
splendid  flagon  and  salver  of  plate  (lost,  I  suppose,  in  the  civil 
wars)  which  had  been  taken  in  the  great  galleon.  Ayacanora 
could  understand  that :  but  the  almsgiving  she  could  not,  till 
Mrs.  Leigh  told  her,  in  her  simple  way,  that  whosoever  gave  to 
the  poor,  gave  to  the  Great  Spirit ;  for  the  Great  Spirit  was  in 
them,  and  in  Ayacanora  too,  if  she  would  be  quiet  and  listen  to 
him,  instead  of  pouting,  and  stamping,  and  doing  nothing  but 
what  she  liked.  And  the  poor  child  took  in  that  new  thought 
like  a  child,  and  worked  her  fingers  to  the  bone  for  all  the  old 
dames  in  Northam,  and  went  about  with  Mrs.  Leigh,  lovely 
and  beloved,  and  looked  now  and  then  out  from  under  her  long 
black  eyelashes  to  see  if  she  was  winning  a  smile  from  Amyas. 
And  on  the  day  on  which  she  won  one,  she  was  good  all  day ; 
and  on  the  day  on  which  she  did  not,  she  was  thoroughly 
naughty,  and  would  have  worn  out  the  patience  of  any  soul 
less  chastened  than  Mrs.  Leigh's.  But  as  for  the  pomp  and 
glory  of  her  dress,  there  was  no  keeping  it  within  bounds ;  and 
she  swept  into  church  each  Sunday  bedizened  in  Spanish  finery, 
with  such  a  blaze  and  rustle,  that  the  good  vicar  had  to  remon- 
strate humbly  with  Mrs.  Leigh  on  the  disturbance  which  she 
caused  to  the  eyes  and  thoughts  of  all  his  congregation.  To 
which  Ayacanora  answered,  that  she  was  not  thinking  about 
them,  and  they  need  not  think  about  her;  and  that  if  the 
Piache  (in  plain  English,  the  conjuror),  as  she  supposed,  wanted 
a  present,  he  might  have  all  her  Mexican  feather-dresses ;  she 
would  not  wear  them — they  were  wild  Indian  things,  and  she 
was  an  English  maid — but  they  would  just  do  for  a  Piache ; 
and  so  darted  upstairs,  brought  them  down,  and  insisted  so 
stoutly  on  arraying  the  vicar  therein,  that  the  good  man  beat  a 
swift  retreat.  But  he  carried  off  with  him,  nevertheless,  one 
of  the  handsomest  mantles,  which,  instead  of  selling  it,  he  con- 
verted cleverly  enough  into  an  altar-cloth ;  and  for  several  years 
afterwards,  the  communion  at  Northam  was  celebrated  upon  a 
blaze  of  emerald,  azure,  and  crimson,  which  had  once  adorned 
the  sinftd  body  of  some  Aztec  prince. 

So  Ayacanora  flaunted  on ;  while  Amyas  watched  hex,  half 
amused,  half  in  simple  pride  of  her  beauty ;  and  looked  around 

2L 


">lt  i i«»\v  TIII:  VIKCIMA  KI.I;I:T  WAS      I.-H.M-. 

:it  nil  gazers,  as  much  as  to  say,  "  See  what  a  fine  bird  I  have 
brought  home ! " 

AiiMthcr  j;rent  trouble  which  she  gave  Mrs.  Leigh  was  her 
conduct  to  the  ladies  of  tin-  neighbourhood.  They  came,  of 
course,  one  and  all,  not  only  to  congratulate  Mrs.  Leigh,  Kut 
to  get  a  peep  at  the  fair  savage  ;  l>ut  tin-  fair  savage  snuhl-ed 
them  all  round,  from  the  vicar's  wife  to  Lady  (In-nvilc  herself, 
so  effectually,  that  few  attempted  a  second  visit. 

Mrs.  Leigh  remonstrated,  and  was  answered  by  floods  of 
tears.  " They  only  come  to  stare  at  a  poor  will  1  Indian  girl, 
and  she  would  not  be  made  a  show  of.  She  was  like  a  queen 
once,  and  every  one  obeyed  her;  but  here  every  one  looked 
down  upon  her."  But  when  Mrs.  Leigh  asked  her,  whether  she 
would  sooner  go  back  to  the  forests,  the  poor  girl  clung  to  lier 
like  a  baby,  and  entreated  not  to  be  sent  away,  "She  would  sooner 
be  a  slave  in  the  kitchen  here,  than  go  back  to  the  bad  people." 

And  so  on,  month  after  month  of  foolish  storm  and  foolish 
sunshine ;  but  she  was  under  the  shadow  of  one  in  whom  was 
neither  storm  nor  sunshine,  but  a  perpetual  genial  calm  of  soft 
grey  weather,  which  tempered  down  to  its  own  peacefulness  all 
who  entered  its  charmed  influence;  and  the  outbursts  grew 
more  and  more  rare,  and  Ayacanora  more  and  more  rational, 
though  no  more  happy,  day  by  day. 

And  one  by  one  small  hints  came  out  which  made  her 
identity  certain,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  Mrs.  Leigh  and  Yeo. 
After  she  had  become  familiar  with  the  sight  of  houses,  she 
gave  them  to  understand  that  she  had  seen  such  things  before. 
The  red  cattle,  too,  seemed  not  unknown  to  her;  the  sheep 
puzzled  her  for  some  time,  and  at  last  she  gave  Mrs.  Leigh  to 
understand  that  they  were  too  small. 

"  Ah,  madam,"  quoth  Yeo,  who  caught  at  every  straw,  "it 
is  because  she  has  been  accustomed  to  those  great  camel  sheep 
(llamas  they  call  them)  in  Peru." 

But  Ayacanora's  delight  was  a  horse.  The  use  of  tame 
animals  at  all  was  a  daily  wonder  to  her ;  but  that  a  horse  could 
be  ridden  was  the  crowning  miracle  of  all ;  and  a  horse  she 
would  ride,  and  after  plaguing  Amyas  for  one  in  vain  (for  he 
did  not  want  to  break  her  pretty  neck),  she  proposed  confiden- 
tially to  Yeo  to  steal  one,  and  foiled  in  that,  went  to  the  vicar 
and  offered  to  barter  all  her  finery  for  his  broken-kneed  pony. 
But  the  vicar  was  too  honest  to  drive  so  good  a  bargain,  and  the 
matter  ended  in  Amyas  buying  her  a  jennet,  which  she  learned 
in  a  fortnight  to  ride  like  a  very  Guacho. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]      STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  515 

And  now  awoke  another  curious  slumbering  reminiscence. 
For  one  day,  at  Lady  Grenvile's  invitation,  the  whole  family 
went  over  to  Stow ;  Mrs.  Leigh  soberly  on  a  pillion  behind  the 
groom,  Ayacanora  cantering  round  and  round  upon  the  moors 
like  a  hound  let  loose,  and  trying  to  make  Amyas  ride  races 
with  her.  But  that  night,  sleeping  in  the  same  room  with  Mrs. 
Leigh,  she  awoke  shrieking,  and  sobbed  out  a  long  story  how 
the  "  Old  ape  of  Panama,"  her  especial  abomination,  had  come 
to  her  bedside  and  dragged  her  forth  into  the  courtyard,  and 
how  she  had  mounted  a  horse  and  ridden  with  an  Indian  over 
great  moors  and  high  mountains  down  into  a  dark  wood,  and 
there  the  Indian  and  the  horses  vanished,  and  she  found  herself 
suddenly  changed  once  more  into  a  little  savage  child.  So 
strong  was  the  impression,  that  she  could  not  be  persuaded  that 
the  thing  had  not  happened,  if  not  that  night,  at  least  some 
night  or  other.  So  Mrs.  Leigh  at  last  believed  the  same,  and 
told  the  company  next  morning  in  her  pious  way  how  the  Lord 
had  revealed  in  a  vision,  to  the  poor  child  who  she  was,  and 
how  she  had  been  exposed  in  the  forests  by  her  jealous  step- 
father, and  neither  Sir  Richard  nor  his  wife  could  doubt  but 
that  hers  was  the  true  solution.  It  was  probable  that  Don 
Xararte,  though  his  home  was  Panama,  had  been  often  at 
Quito,  for  Yeo  had  seen  him  come  on  board  the  Lima  ship  at 
Guayaquil,  one  of  the  nearest  ports.  This  would  explain  her 
having  been  found  by  the  Indians  beyond  Cotopaxi,  the  nearest 
peak  of  the  Eastern  Andes,  if,  as  was  but  too  likely,  the  old 
man,  believing  her  to  be  Oxenham's  child,  had  conceived  the 
fearful  vengeance  of  exposing  her  in  the  forests. 

Other  little  facts  came  to  light  one  by  one.  They  were  all 
connected  (as  was  natural  in  a  savage)  with  some  animal  or 
other  natural  object.  Whatever  impressions  her  morals  or 
affections  had  received,  had  been  erased  by  the  long  spiritual 
death  of  that  forest  sojourn ;  and  Mrs.  Leigh  could  not  elicit 
from  her  a  trace  of  feeling  about  her  mother,  or  recollection  of 
any  early  religious  teaching.  This  link,  however,  was  supplied 
at  last,  and  in  this  way. 

Sir  Eichard  had  brought  home  an  Indian  with  him  from 
Virginia.  Of  his  original  name  I  am  not  sure,  but  he  was 
probably  the  "Wanchese"  whose  name  occurs  with  that  of 
"Manteo." 

This  man  was  to  be  baptized  in  the  church  at  Bideford  by 
the  name  of  Raleigh,  his  sponsors  being  most  probably  Raleigh 
himself,  who  may  have  been  there  on  Virginian  business,  and  Sir 


516  HOW  mi:  VIK.JIMA  Ki.i-:i"i-  WAS      [CHAI-.  xxix. 

Richard  Grenvilc.  All  the  notabilities  of  Bideford  came,  of 
course,  to  see  the  baptism  of  the  first  "  lied  man  "  whose  foot 
had  ever  trodden  British  soil,  and  the  mayor  and  corporation- 
IHCII  ;i|>|M'arc(l  in  full  robes,  with  maces  and  tipstaffs,  to  do 
honour  to  that  first-fruits  of  the  Gospel  in  the  West. 

Mrs.  Leigh  went,  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  Ayacanora 
would  needs  go  too.  She  was  very  anxious  to  know  what  they 
were  going  to  do  with  the  "Carib." 

"To  make  him  a  Christian." 

"  Why  did  they  not  make  her  one  V 

Because  she  was  one  already.  They  were  sure  that  she  had 
been  christened  as  soon  as  she  was  born.  But  she  was  not 
sure,  and  pouted  a  good  deal  at  the  chance  of  an  "  ugly  red 
Carib  "  being  better  off  than  she  was.  However,  all  assembled 
duly;  the  stately  son  of  the  forest,  now  transformed  into  a 
footman  of  Sir  Richard's,  was  standing  at  the  font ;  the  service 
was  half  performed  when  a  heavy  sigh,  or  rather  groan,  made 
all  eyes  turn,  and  Ayacanora  sank  fainting  upon  Mrs.  Leigh's 
bosom. 

She  was  carried  out,  and  to  a  neighbouring  house ;  and  when 
she  came  to  herself,  told  a  strange  story.  How,  as  she  was 
standing  there  trying  to  recollect  whether  she  too  had  ever  been 
baptized,  the  church  seemed  to  grow  larger,  the  priest's  dress 
richer ;  the  walls  were  covered  with  pictures,  and  above  the  altar, 
in  jewelled  robes,  stood  a  lady,  and  in  her  arms  a  babe.  Soft 
music  sounded  in  her  ears ;  the  air  was  full  (on  that  she  insisted 
much)  of  fragrant  odour  which  filled  the  church  like  mist ;  and 
through  it  she  saw  not  one,  but  many  Indians,  standing  by  the 
font ;  and  a  lady  held  her  by  the  hand,  and  she  was  a  little  girl 
again. 

And  after  many  questionings,  so  accurate  was  her  recollec- 
tion, not  only  of  the  scene,  but  of  the  building,  that  Yeo 
pronounced 

"  A  christened  woman  she  is,  madam,  if  Popish  christening  is 
worth  calling  such,  and  has  seen  Indians  christened  too  in  the 
Cathedral  Church  at  Quito,  the  inside  whereof  I  know  well 
enough,  and  too  well,  for  I  sat  there  three  mortal  hours  in  a 
San  Benito,  to  hear  a  friar  preach  his  false  doctrines,  not 
knowing  whether  I  was  to  be  burnt  or  not  next  day." 

So  Ayacanora  went  home  to  Buirough,  and  Raleigh  the  Indian 
to  Sir  Richard's  house.  The  entry  of  his  baptism  still  stands, 
crooked-lettered,  in  the  old  parchment  register  of  the  r.iilrfi>r«l 
baptisms  for  1587-8 — 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  517 

"Kaleigh,  a  Winganditoian  :  March  26." 

His  name  occurs  once  more,  a  year  and  a  month  after — 

"Rawly,  a  Winganditoian,  April  1589." 

But  it  is  not  this  time  among  the  baptisms.  The  free  forest 
wanderer  has  pined  in  vain  for  his  old  deer-hunts  amid  the 
fragrant  cedar  woods,  and  lazy  paddlings  through  the  still 
lagoons,  where  water-lilies  sleep  beneath  the  shade  of  great 
magnolias,  wreathed  with  clustered  vines ;  and  now  he  is  away 
to  "  happier  hunting-grounds,"  and  all  that  is  left  of  him 
below  sleeps  in  the  narrow  town  churchyard,  blocked  in  with 
dingy  houses,  whose  tenants  will  never  waste  a  sigh  upon  the 
Indian's  grave.  There  the  two  entries  stand,  unto  this  day ; 
and  most  pathetic  they  have  seemed  to  me ;  a  sort  of  emblem 
and  first-fruits  of  the  sad  fate  of  that  worn-out  Red  race,  to 
whom  civilisation  came  too  late  to  save,  but  not  too  late  to 
hasten  their  decay. 

But  though  Amyas  lay  idle,  England  did  not.  That  spring 
saw  another  and  a  larger  colony  sent  out  by  Raleigh  to  Virginia, 
under  the  charge  of  one  John  White.  Raleigh  had  written 
more  than  once,  entreating  Amyas  to  take  the  command,  which 
if  he  had  done,  perhaps  the  United  States  had  begun  to  exist 
twenty  years  sooner  than  they  actually  did.  But  his  mother 
had  bound  him  by  a  solemn  promise  (and  who  can  wonder  at 
her  for  asking,  or  at  him  for  giving  it  1)  to  wait  at  home  with 
her  twelve  months  at  least.  So,  instead  of  himself,  he  sent 
five  hundred  pounds,  which  I  suppose  are  in  Virginia  (virtually 
at  least)  until  this  day ;  for  they  never  came  back  again  to  him. 

But  soon  came  a  sharper  trial  of  Amyas's  promise  to  his 
mother ;  and  one  which  made  him,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
moody,  peevish,  and  restless,  at  the  thought  that  others  were 
fighting  Spaniards,  while  he  was  sitting  idle  at  home.  For  his 
whole  soul  was  filling  fast  with  sullen  malice  against  Don 
Guzman.  He  was  losing  the  "  single  eye,"  and  his  whole  body 
was  no  longer  full  of  light.  He  had  entered  into  the  darkness 
in  which  every  man  walks  who  hates  his  brother ;  and  it  lay 
upon  him  like  a  black  shadow  day  and  night.  No  company, 
too,  could  be  more  fit  to  darken  that  shadow  than  Salvation 
Yeo's.  The  old  man  grew  more  stern  in  his  fanaticism  day  by 
day,  and  found  a  too  willing  listener  in  his  master ;  and  Mrs. 
Leigh  was  (perhaps  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  her  life) 
seriously  angry,  when  she  heard  the  two  coolly  debating  whether 


.Ms  HOW  TIIK  vii:i;iMv  n.r.r.r  WAS      [,  H.M.. 

they  had  not  committed  a  grievous  sin  in  not  killing  the 
Spanish  prisoners  on  board  the  gallnui. 

It  must  be  said,  however  (as  the  plain  facts  set  down  in  tliis 
book  tr-tilY),  that  if  such  was  the  temj>er  of  Englishmen  at 
that  day,  the  SjMiniards  had  done  a  good  deal  to  provoke  it; 
and  were  just  then  attempting  to  do  still  more. 

For  now  we  are  approaching  the  year  1588,  "which  an 
astronomer  of  Konigsberg,  above  a  hundred  years  before,  foretold 
would  be  an  admirable  year,  and  the  German  chroiiologere  pre- 
saged would  be  the  climacterical  year  of  the  worM." 

The  prophecies  may  stand  for  what  they  are  worth ;  but 
they  were  at  least  fulfilled.  That  year  was,  indeed,  the  climac- 
terical year  of  the  world ;  and  decided  once  and  for  all  the 
fortunes  of  the  European  nations,  and  of  the  whole  continent  of 
America. 

No  wonder,  then,  if  (as  has  happened  in  each  great  crisis  of 
the  human  race)  some  awful  instinct  that  The  Day  of  the  Lord 
was  at  hand,  some  dim  feeling  that  there  was  war  in  heaven, 
and  that  the  fiends  of  darkness  and  the  angels  of  light  were 
arrayed  against  each  other  in  some  mighty  struggle  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  souls  of  men,  should  have  tried  to  express  itself 
in  astrologic  dreams,  and,  as  was  the  fashion  then,  attributed  to 
the  "  rulers  of  the  planetary  houses,"  some  sympathy  with  the 
coming  world-tragedy. 

But,  for  the  wise,  there  needed  no  conjunction  of  planets  to 
tell  them  that  the  day  was  near  at  hand,  when  the  long  desul- 
tory duel  between  Spain  and  England  would  end,  once  and  for 
all,  in  some  great  death-grapple.  The  war,  as  yet,  had  been 
confined  to  the  Netherlands,  to  the  West  Indies,  and  the 
coasts  and  isles  of  Africa  ;  to  the  quarters,  in  fact,  where 
Spain  was  held  either  to  have  no  rights,  or  to  have  forfeited 
them  by  tyranny.  But  Spain  itself  had  been  respected  by 
England,  as  England  had  by  Spain  ;  and  trade  to  Spanish  ports 
went  on  as  usual,  till,  in  the  year  1585,  the  Spaniard,  without 
warning,  laid  an  embargo  on  all  English  ships  coming  to  his 
European  shores.  They  were  to  be  seized,  it  seemed,  to  form 
part  of  an  enormous  armament,  which  was  to  attack  and  crush, 
once  and  for  all — whom?  The  rebellious  Netherlander,  said 
the  Spaniards :  but  the  queen,  the  ministry,  and,  when  it  was 
just  not  too  late,  the  people  of  England,  thought  otherwise. 
England  was  the  destined  victim ;  so,  instead  of  negotiating, 
in  order  to  avoid  fighting,  they  fought  in  order  to  produce 
negotiation.  Drake,  Frobisher,  and  Carlisle,  as  we  have  seen, 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  519 

swept  the  Spanish  Main  with  fire  and  sword,  stopping  the 
Indian  supplies ;  while  Walsingham  (craftiest,  and  yet  most 
honest  of  mortals)  prevented,  by  some  mysterious  financial 
operation,  the  Venetian  merchants  from  repairing  the  Spaniards' 
loss  by  a  loan  ;  and  no  Armada  came  that  year. 

In  the  meanwhile,  the  Jesuits,  here  and  abroad,  made  no 
secret,  among  their  own  dupes,  of  the  real  objects  of  the  Spanish 
armament.  The  impious  heretics, — the  Drakes  and  Raleighs, 
Grenviles  and  Cavendishes,  Hawkinses  and  Frobishers,  who 
had  dared  to  violate  that  hidden  sanctuary  of  just  half  the 
globe,  which  the  pope  had  bestowed  on  the  defender  of  the  true 
faith, — a  shameful  ruin,  a  terrible  death  awaited  them,  when 
their  sacrilegious  barks  should  sink  beneath  the  thunder  of 
Spanish  cannon,  blessed  by  the  pope,  and  sanctified  with  holy 
water  and  prayer  to  the  service  of  "  God  and  his  Mother." 
Yes,  they  would  fall,  and  England  with  them.  The  proud 
islanders,  who  had  dared  to  rebel  against  St.  Peter,  and  to  cast 
off  the  worship  of  "  Mary,"  should  bow  their  necks  once  more 
under  the  yoke  of  the  Gospel.  Their  so-called  queen,  illegiti- 
mate, excommunicate,  contumacious,  the  abettor  of  free-trade, 
the  defender  of  the  Netherlands,  the  pillar  of  false  doctrine 
throughout  Europe,  should  be  sent  in  chains  across  the  Alps,  to 
sue  for  her  life  at  the  feet  of  the  injured  and  long-suffering 
father  of  mankind,  while  his  nominee  took  her  place  upon  the 
throne  which  she  had  long  since  forfeited  by  her  heresy. 

"What  nobler  work1?  How  could  the  Church  of  God  be  more 
gloriously  propagated  1  How  could  higher  merit  be  obtained  by 
faithful  Catholics  ?  It  must  succeed.  Spain  was  invincible  in 
valour,  inexhaustible  in  wealth.  Heaven  itself  offered  them  an 
opportunity.  They  had  nothing  now  to  fear  from  the  Turk,  for 
they  had  concluded  a  truce  with  him ;  nothing  from  the  French, 
for  they  were  embroiled  in  civil  war.  The  heavens  themselves 
had  called  upon  Spain  to  fulfil  her  heavenly  mission,  and  restore 
to  the  Church's  crown  this  brightest  and  richest  of  her  lost 
jewels.  The  heavens  themselves  called  to  a  new  crusade.  The 
saints,  whose  altars  the  English  had  rifled  and  profaned,  called 
them  to  a  new  crusade.  The  Virgin  Queen  of  Heaven,  whose 
boundless  stores  of  grace  the  English  spurned,  called  them  to  a 
new  crusade.  Justly  incensed  at  her  own  wrongs  and  indig- 
nities, that  '  ever-gracious  Virgin,  refuge  of  sinners,  and  mother 
of  fair  love,  and  holy  hope,'  adjured  by  their  knightly  honour, 
all  valiant  cavaliers  to  do  battle  in  her  cause  against  the  impious 
harlot  who  assumed  her  titles,  received  from  her  idolatrous 


520  ii"\v  TIII:  VIKI.INIA  ru:r.T  WAS      [CHAP.  xxix. 

flatterers  the  homage  due  to  Mary  alone,  and  even  (for  Father 
Parsons  had  asserted  it,  therefore  it  must  be  true)  had  caused 
her  name  to  be  substituted  for  that  of  Mary  in  the  Litanies  of 
the  Clmreli.  Let  all  who  wore  within  a  manly  heart,  without  a 
manly  sword,  look  on  the  woes  of '  Mary,' — her  shame,  her  tears, 
her  Muslims,  her  heart  pierced  through  with  daily  wounds,  from 
heretic  tongues,  and  choose  between  her  and  Elizabeth !" 

So  said  Parsons,  Allen,  and  do/ens  more;  and  said  more 
than  this,  too,  and  much  which  one  had  rather  not  repeat;  ami 
were  somewhat  surprised  and  mortified  to  find  that  their  hearers, 
though  they  granted  the  premisses,  were  too  dull  or  carnal  t«i 
arrive  at  the  same  conclusion.  The  English  lay  Romanists, 
almost  to  a  man,  had  hearts  sounder  than  their  heads,  and, 
howsoever  illogically,  could  not  help  holding  to  the  strange 
superstition  that,  being  Englishmen,  they  were  bound  to  fight 
for  England.  So  the  hapless  Jesuits,  who  had  been  boasting 
for  years  past  that  the  persecuted  faithful  throughout  the  island 
would  rise  as  one  man  to  fight  under  the  blessed  banner  of  the 
pope  and  Spain,  found  that  the  faithful,  like  Demas  of  old,  for- 
sook them  and  "went  after  this  present  world;"  having  no 
objection,  of  course,  to  the  restoration  of  Popery  :  but  preferring 
some  more  comfortable  method  than  an  invasion  which  would 
inevitably  rob  them  of  their  ancestral  lands  and  would  seat 
needy  and  greedy  Castilians  in  their  old  country  houses,  to  treat 
their  tenants  as  they  had  treated  the  Indians  of  Hispaniola,  and 
them  as  they  had  treated  the  Caciques. 

But  though  the  hearts  of  men  in  that  ungodly  age  were  too 
hard  to  melt  at  the  supposed  woes  of  the  Mary  who  reigned 
above,  and  too  dull  to  turn  rebels  and  traitors  for  the  sake  of 
those  thrones  and  principalities  in  supra-lunar  spheres  whi<  h 
might  be  in  her  gift:  yet  there  was  a  Mary  who  reigned  (or 
ought  to  reign)  below,  whose  woes  (like  her  gifts)  were  some- 
what more  palpable  to  the  carnal  sense.  A  Mary  who,  having 
every  comfort  and  luxury  (including  hounds  and  horses)  found 
for  her  by  the  English  Government,  at  an  expense  which  would 
be  now  equal  to  some  twenty  thousand  a  year,  could  afford  to 
employ  the  whole  of  her  jointure  as  Queen  Dowager  of  France 
(probably  equal  to  fifty  thousand  a  year  more),  in  plotting  the 
destruction  of  the  said  government,  and  the  murder  of  its  queen; 
a  Mary  who,  if  she  prospered  as  she  ought,  might  have  duke- 
doms, and  earldoms,  fair  lands  and  castles  to  bestow  on  her 
faithful  servants ;  a  Mary,  finally,  who  contrived  by  means  of 
an  angel  face,  a  serpent  tongue,  and  a  heart  (as  she  said  herself) 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMANIX  521 

as  hard  as  a  diamond,  to  make  every  weak  man  fall  in  love  with 
her,  and,  what  was  worse,  fancy  more  or  less  that  she  was  in 
love  with  him. 

Of  her  the  Jesuits  were  not  unmindful ;  and  found  it  con- 
venient, indeed,  to  forget  awhile  the  sorrows  of  the  Queen  of 
Heaven  in  those  of  the  Queen  of  Scots.  Not  that  they  cared 
much  for  those  sorrows ;  but  they  were  an  excellent  stock-in- 
trade.  She  was  a  Romanist ;  she  was  "beautiful  and  unfortu- 
nate," a  "virtue  which,  like  charity,  hides  the  multitude  of  sins ; 
and  therefore  she  was  a  convenient  card  to  play  in  the  great 
game  of  Rome  against  the  Queen  and  people  of  England ;  and 
played  the  poor  card  was,  till  it  got  torn  up  by  over-using.  Into 
her  merits  or  demerits  I  do  not  enter  deeply  here.  Let  her  rest 
in  peace. 

To  all  which  the  people  of  England  made  a  most  practical 
and  terrible  answer.  From  the  highest  noble  to  the  lowest 
peasant,  arose  one  simultaneous  plebiscitum  :  "We  are  tired  of 
these  seventeen  years  of  chicanery  and  terror.  This  woman 
must  die  :  or  the  commonweal  of  England  perish  !"  We  all 
know  which  of  the  two  alternatives  was  chosen. 

All  Europe  stood  aghast :  but  rather  with  astonishment  at 
English  audacity,  than  with  horror  at  English  wickedness. 
Mary's  own  French  kinsfolk  had  openly  given  her  up  as  too  bad 
to  be  excused,  much  less  assisted.  Her  own  son  blustered  a 
little  to  the  English  ambassador ;  for  the  majesty  of  kings  was 
invaded  :  whereon  Walsingham  said  in  open  council,  that  "  the 
queen  should  send  him  a  couple  of  hounds,  and  that  would  set 
all  right."  Which  sage  advice  (being  acted  on,  and  some  deer 
sent  over  and  above)  was  so  successful  that  the  pious  mourner, 
having  run  off  (Randolph  says,  like  a  baby  to  see  the  deer  in 
their  cart),  returned  for  answer  that  he  would  "thereafter  de- 
pend wholly  upon  her  Majesty,  and  serve  her  fortune  against  all 
the  world ;  and  that  he  only  wanted  now  two  of  her  Majesty's 
yeoman  prickers,  and  a  couple  of  her  grooms  of  the  deer."  The 
Spaniard  was  not  sorry  on  the  whole  for  the  catastrophe ;  for 
all  that  had  kept  him  from  conquering  England  long  ago  was 
the  fear  lest,  after  it  was  done,  he  might  have  had  to  put  the 
crown  thereof  on  Mary's  head,  instead  of  his  own.  But  Mary's 
death  was  as  convenient  a  stalking-horse  to  him  as  to  the  pope ; 
and  now  the  Armada  was  coming  in  earnest. 

Elizabeth  began  negotiating;  but  fancy  not  that  she  does 
nothing  more,  as  the  following  letter  testifies,  written  about 
Midsummer,  1587. 


522  HOW  TIII:  VIRGINIA  KI.I.KI  WAS      [, •„  u..  XXIX. 

"  /•'.  Drake  to  Captain  Amyas  /,</'<//'.      '/'/</.«  n-it/t  // 

"  DEAR  LAD, 

"As  I  said  to  her  most  glorious  Majesty,  I  say  to  you  n«>\v. 
There  are  two  ways  of  facing  an  enemy.  The  one  to  stand  off, 
and  cry,  'Try  that  again  and  I'll  strike  thee';  the  other  to 
strike  him  first,  and  then,  '  Try  that  at  all,  and  I'll  strike  thee 
again.'  Of  which  latter  counsel  her  Majesty  so  far  approves, 
that  I  go  forthwith  (tell  it  not  in  Gath)  down  the  coast,  to  singe 
the  king  of  Spain's  beard  (so  I  termed  it  to  her  Majesty,  she 
laughing),  in  which  if  I  leave  so  much  as  a  fishing-boat  ;itl...tt 
from  the  Groyne  unto  Cadiz,  it  will  not  be  with  my  good  vill, 
who  intend  that  if  he  come  this  year,  he  shall  come  by  swim- 
ming and  not  by  sailing.  So  if  you  are  still  the  man  I  have 
known  you,  bring  a  good  ship  round  to  Plymouth  within  the 
month,  and  away  with  me  for  hard  blows  and  hard  money,  the 
feel  of  both  of  which  you  know  pretty  well  by  now. 

"  Thine  lovingly, 

"  F.  DRAKE." 

Amyas  clutched  his  locks  over  this  letter,  and  smoked  more 
tobacco  the  day  he  got  it  than  had  ever  before  been  consumed 
at  once  in  England.  But  he  kept  true  to  his  promise ;  and  this 
was  his  reply  : — 

"  Amyas  Leigh  to  the  Worshipful  Sir  F.  Drake,  Admiral  of 
her  Majesty's  Fleet  in  Plymouth. 

"  MOST  HONOURED  SlR, 

"  A  magician  keeps  me  here,  in  bilboes  for  which  you  have 
no  picklock ;  namely,  a  mother  who  forbids.  The  loss  is  mine  : 
but  Antichrist  I  can  fight  any  year  (for  he  will  not  die  this 
bout,  nor  the  next),  while  my  mother — but  I  will  not  trouble 
your  patience  more  than  to  ask  from  you  to  get  me  news,  if  you 
can,  from  any  prisoners  of  one  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena 
Sotomayor  de  Soto ;  whether  he  is  in  Spain  or  in  the  Indies ; 
and  what  the  villain  does,  and  where  he  is  to  be  found.  This 
only  I  entreat  of  you,  and  so  remain  behind  with  a  heavy  heart. 
"  Yours  to  command  in  all  else,  and  I 
would  to  Heaven,  in  this  also, 

"  AMYAS  LEIGH." 

I  am  sorry  to  have  to  say,  that  after  having  thus  obeyed  his 
mother,  Master  Amyas,  as  men  are  too  apt  to  do,  revenged  him- 
self on  her  by  being  more  and  more  cross  and  disagreeable,  But 


CHA1>.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  523 

his  temper  amended  much,  when,  a  few  months  after,  Drake, 
returned  triumphant,  having  destroyed  a  hundred  sail  in  Cadiz 
alone,  taken  three  great  galleons  with  immense  wealth  on  board, 
burnt  the  small  craft  all  along  the  shore,  and  offered  battle  to 
Santa  Cruz  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus.  After  which  it  is  un- 
necessary to  say,  that  the  Armada  was  put  off  for  yet  another 
year. 

This  news,  indeed,  gave  Amyas  little  comfort ;  for  he  merely 
observed,  grumbling,  that  Drake  had  gone  and  spoiled  every- 
body else's  sport :  but  what  cheered  him  was  news  from  Drake 
that  Don  Guzman  had  been  heard  of  from  the  captain  of  one  of 
the  galleons;  that  he  was  high  in  favour  in  Spain,  and  com- 
mandant of  soldiers  on  board  one  of  the  largest  of  the  Marquis's 
ships. 

And  when  Amyas  heard  that,  a  terrible  joy  took  possession 
of  him.  When  the  Armada  came,  as  come  it  would,  he  should 
meet  his  enemy  at  last !  He  could  wait  now  patiently :  if — 
and  he  shuddered  at  himself,  as  he  found  himself  in  the  very 
act  of  breathing  a  prayer  that  Don  Guzman  might  not  die  before 
that  meeting. 

In  the  meanwhile,  rumour  flew  thousand-tongued  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the -land;  of  vast  preparations  going 
on  in  Spain  and  Italy ;  of  timber  felled  long  before  for  some 
such  purpose,  brought  down  to  the  sea,  and  sawn  out  for  ship- 
building ;  of  casting  of  cannon,  and  drilling  of  soldiers  ;  of  ships 
in  hundreds  collecting  at  Lisbon ;  of  a  crusade  preached  by  Pope 
Sixtus  the  Fifth,  who  had  bestowed  the  kingdom  of  England 
on  the  Spaniard,  to  be  enjoyed  by  him  as  vassal  tributary  to. 
Rome ;  of  a /million  of  gold  to  be  paid  by  the  pope,  one-half 
down  at  once,  the  other  half  when  London  was  taken ;  of  Car- 
dinal Allen*  writing  and  printing  busily  in  the  Netherlands, 
calling  on  all  good  Englishmen  to  carry  out,  by  rebelling  against 
Elizabeth,  the  Bull  of  Sixtus  the  Fifth,  said  (I  blush  to  repeat 
it)  to  have  been  dictated  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  of  Inquisitors 
getting  ready  fetters  and  devil's  engines  of  all  sorts ;  of  princes 
and  noblemen,  flocking  from  all  quarters,  gentlemen  selling  their 
private  estates  to  fit  out  ships ;  how  the  Prince  of  Melito,  the 
Marquess  of  Burgrave,  Vespasian  Gonzaga,  John  Medicis,  Amadas 
of  Savoy,  in  short,  the  illegitimate  sons  of  all  the  southern 
princes,  having  no  lands  of  their  own,  were  coming  to  find  that 
necessary  of  life  in  this  pleasant  little  wheat-garden.  Nay,  the 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia  had  already  engaged  Mount-Edgecombe 
for  himself,  as  the  fairest  jewel  of  the  south ;  which  when  good 


524  HOW  THE  VIRGINIA  FLEET  WAS        [CHAP.  XXIX. 

old  Sir  Richard  Edgecombe  heard,  he  observed  quirt ly,  that  in 
lfi.">"»  lie  had  tin-  pleasure  of  receiving  at  his  table  at  one  time 
the  admirals  of  England,  Spain,  and  the  Netherlands,  and  there- 
fore had  experience  in  entertaining  Dons ;  and  made  preparations 
fur  tin-  visit  liy  tilling  his  cellars  with  gunpowder,  with  a  view 
to  a  housewanning  and  feu-de-joie  on  the  occasion.  But  as  old 
Fuller  says,  "The  bear  was  not  yet  killed,  and  Medina  Sidonia 
might  have  catched  a  great  cold,  had  ho  no  other  clothes  to 
wear  than  the  skin  thereof." 

So  flew  rumour,  false  and  true,  till  poor  John  Bull's  wits 
were  well-nigh  turned :  but  to  the  very  last,  after  hi.- 
fashion,  he  persuaded  himself  that  it  would  all  come  right  some- 
how ;  that  it  was  too  great  news  to  be  true  ;  that  if  it  was  true, 
the  expedition  was  only  meant  for  the  Netherlands;  and,  in 
short,  sat  quietly  over  his  beef  and  beer  for  many  a  day  after 
the  French  king  had  sent  him  fair  warning,  and  the  queen,  the 
ministry,  and  the  admirals  had  been  assuring  him  again  and 
again  that  he,  and  not  the  Dutchman,  was  the  destined  prey  of 
this  great  flight  of  ravenous  birds. 

At  last  the  Spaniard,  in  order  that  there  should  be  no  mis- 
take about  the  matter,  kindly  printed  a  complete  bill  of  the 
play,  to  be  seen  still  in  Van  Meteran,  for  the  comfort  of  all  true 
Catholics,  and  confusion  of  all  pestilent  heretics ;  which  docu- 
ment, of  course,  the  seminary  priests  used  to  enforce  the  duty 
of  helping  the  invaders,  and  the  certainty  of  their  success ;  and 
from  their  hands  it  soon  passed  into  those  of  the  devout  ladies, 
who  were  not  very  likely  to  keep  it  to  themselves ;  till  John 
Bull  himself  found  his  daughters  buzzing  over  it  with  very  pale 
faces  (as  young  ladies  well  might  who  had  no  wish  to  follow 
the  fate  of  the  damsels  of  Antwerp),  and  condescending  to  run 
his  eye  through  it,  discovered,  what  all  the  rest  of  Europe  had 
known  for  months  past,  that  he  was  in  a  very  great  scrape. 

Well  it  was  for  England  then,  that  her  Tudor  sovereigns 
had  compelled  every  man  (though  they  kept  up  no  standing 
army)  to  be  a  trained  soldier.  Well  it  was  that  Elizabeth, 
even  in  those  dangerous  days  of  intrigue  and  rebellion,  had 
trusted  her  people  enough,  not  only  to  leave  them  their  weapons, 
but  (what  we,  forsooth,  in  these  more  "  free  "  and  "  liberal " 
days  dare  not  do)  to  teach  them  how  to  use  them.  Well  it 
was,  that  by  careful  legislation  for  the  comfort  and  employment 
of  "the  masses"  (term  then,  thank  God,  unknown),  she  had 
both  won  their  hearts,  and  kept  their  bodies  in  fighting  order. 
Well  it  was  that,  acting  as  fully  as  Napoleon  did  on  "la  carriere 


CHAP.  XXIX.]      STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  525 

ouverte  aux  talens,"  she  had  raised  to  the  highest  posts  in  her 
councils,  her  army,  and  her  navy,  men  of  business,  who  had 
not  been  ashamed  to  buy  and  sell  as  merchants  and  adventurers. 
Well  for  England,  in  a  word,  that  Elizabeth  had  pursued  for 
thirty  years  a  very  different  course  from  that  which  we  have 
been  pursuing  for  the  last  thirty,  with  one  exception,  namely 
the  leaving  as  much  as  possible  to  private  enterprise. 

There  we  have  copied  her :  would  to  Heaven  that  we  had 
in  some  other  matters  !  It  is  the  fashion  now  to  call  her  a 
despot :  but  unless  every  monarch  is  to  be  branded  with  that 
epithet  whose  power  is  not  as  circumscribed  as  Queen  Victoria's 
is  now,  we  ought  rather  to  call  her  the  most  popular  sovereign, 
obeyed  of  their  own  free  will  by  the  freest  subjects  which 
England  has  ever  seen ;  confess  the  Armada  fight  to  have  been 
as  great  a  moral  triumph  as  it  was  a  political  one ;  and  (now 
that  our  late  boasting  is  a  little  silenced  by  Crimean  disasters) 
inquire  whether  we  have  not  something  to  learn  from  those  old 
Tudor  times,  as  to  how  to  choose  officials,  how  to  train  a  people, 
and  how  to  defend  a  country. 

To  return  to  the  thread  of  my  story. 

January  1587-8  had  well -nigh  run  through,  before  Sir 
Richard  Grenvile  made  his  appearance  on  the  streets  of  Bideford. 
He  had  been  appointed  in  November  one  of  the  council  of  war 
for  providing  for  the  safety  of  the  nation,  and  the  West  Country 
had  seen  nothing  of  him  since.  But  one  morning,  just  before 
Christmas,  his  stately  figure  darkened  the  old  bay-window  at 
Burrough,  and  Amyas  rushed  out  to  meet  him,  and  bring  him 
in,  and  ask  what  news  from  Court. 

"All  good  news,  dear  lad,  and  dearer  Madam.  The  queen 
shows  the  spirit  of  a  very  Boadicea  or  Semiramis ;  ay,  a  very 
Scythian  Tomyris,  and  if  she  had  the  Spaniard  before  her  now, 
would  verily,  for  aught  I  know,  feast  him  as  the  Scythian  queen 
did  Cyrus,  with  'Satia  te  sanguine,  quod  sitisti.'" 

"  I  trust  her  most  merciful  spirit  is  not  so  changed  already," 
said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"Well,  if  she  would  not  do  it,  I  would,  and  ask  pardon 
afterwards,  as  Raleigh  did  about  the  rascals  at  Smerwick,  whom 
Amyas  knows  of.  Mrs.  Leigh,  these  are  times  in  which  mercy 
is  cruelty.  Not  England  alone,  but  the  world,  the  Bible,  the 
Gospel  itself,  is  at  stake ;  and  we  must  do  terrible  things,  lest 
we  suffer  more  terrible  ones." 

"  God  will  take  care  of  world  and  Bible  better  than  any 
cruelty  of  ours,  dear  Sir  Richard, " 


526  Hi»\V   Till.   VIRGINIA   FLRKT  WAS        [CHAP.  XXIX. 

"Nay,  but,  Mrs.  Leigh,  wo  must  M\>  Him  to  take  care  of 
them  !  It'  those  Smerwiok  Si>ani:inls  h.-ul  not  bet-n — 

"The  Simian!  would  in  it  have  been  exasperated  into  in- 
v.-ulinj;  iw." 

••  Ami  wi;  should  not  have  had  this  chance  of  crushing  him 
once  and  for  all :  but  the  quarrel  is  of  older  standing,  Madam, 
eh,  Amyas  ?  Amyas,  has  Raleigh  written  to  you  of  late  ?" 

"  Not  a  word,  and  I  wonder  why." 

"  Well ;  no  wonder  at  that,  if  you  knew  how  he  has  been 
labouring.  The  wonder  is,  whence  he  got  the  knowledge 
wherewith  to  labour ;  for  he  never  saw  sea-work  to  my  remem- 
brance." 

"  Never  saw  a  shot  fired  by  sea,  except  ours  at  Smerwick, 
and  that  brush  with  the  Spaniards  in  1579,  when  he  sailed  for 
Virginia  with  Sir  Humphrey ;  and  he  was  a  mere  crack  then." 

"So  you  consider  him  as  your  pupil,  eh?  But  he  learnt 
enough  in  the  Netherland  ware,  and  in  Ireland  too,  if  not  of 
the  strength  of  ships,  yet  still  of  the  weakness  of  land  forces ; 
and  would  you  believe  it,  the  man  has  twisted  the  whole  council 
tound  his  finger,  and  made  them  give  up  the  land  defences  to 
the  naval  ones." 

"  Quite  right  he,  and  wooden  walls  against  stone  ones  for 
ever !  But  as  for  twisting,  he  would  persuade  Satan,  if  he  got 
him  alone  for  half  an  hour." 

"  I  wish  he  would  sail  for  Spain  then,  just  now,  and  try 
the  powers  of  his  tongue,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"But  are  we  to  have  the  honour,  really?" 

"  We  are,  lad.  There  were  many  in  the  council  who  were 
for  disputing  the  landing  on  shore,  and  said — which  I  do  not 
deny — that  the  'prentice  boys  of  London  could  face  the  bluest 
blood  in  Spain.  But  Raleigh  argued  (following  my  Lord 
Burleigh  in  that)  that  we  differed  from  the  Low  Countries,  and 
all  other  lands,  in  that  we  had  not  a  castle  or  town  throughout, 
which  would  stand  a  ten  days'  siege,  and  that  our  ramparts,  as 
he  well  said,  were,  after  all,  only  a  body  of  men.  So,  he 
argued,  as  long  as  the  enemy  has  power  to  land  where  he  will, 
prevention,  rather  than  cure,  is  our  only  hope ;  and  that  belongs 
to  the  office,  not  of  an  army,  but  of  a  fleet  So  the  fleet  was 
agreed  on,  and  a  fleet  we  shall  have." 

"  Then  here  is  his  health,  the  health  of  a  trut-  frirnd  to  all 
bold  mariners,  and  myself  in  particular !  But  where  is  he 
now?" 

"  Coming  here  to-morrow,  as  I  hope — for  he  left  London 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  527 

with  me,  and  so  down  by  us  into  Cornwall,  to  drill  the  train- 
bands, as  he  is  bound  to  do,  being  Seneschal  of  the  Duchies  and 
Lieuteuant-General  of  the  county." 

"  Besides  Lord  Warden  of  the  Stanneries  !  How  the  man 
thrives  !"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"How  the  man  deserves  to  thrive!"  said  Amyas;  "but 
what  are  we  to  do  V 

"  That  is  the  rub.    I  would  fain  stay  and  fight  the  Spaniards." 

"  So  would  I ;  and  will." 

"  But  he  has  other  plans  in  his  head  for  us." 

"We  can  make  our  own  plans  without  his  help." 

"  Heyday,  Amyas  !  How  long  1  When  did  he  ask  you  to 
do  a  thing  yet  and  you  refuse  him  1" 

"  Not  often,  certainly  :  but  Spaniards  I  must  fight." 

"  Well,  so  must  I,  boy :  but  I  have  given  a  sort  of  promise 
to  him,  nevertheless." 

"  Not  for  me  too,  I  hope  V 

"  No :  he  will  extract  that  himself  when  he  comes ;  you 
must  come  and  sup  to-morrow,  and  talk  it  over." 

"  Be  talked  over,  rather.  What  chestnut  does  the  cat  want 
us  monkeys  to  pull  out  of  the  fire  for  him  now,  I  wonder?" 

"  Sir  Richard  Grenvile  is  hardly  accustomed  to  be  called  a 
monkey,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"I  meant  no  harm;  and  his  worship  knows  it,  none  better  : 
but  where  is  Raleigh  going  to  send  us,  with  a  murrain  1" 

"  To  Virginia.  The  settlers  must  have  help :  and,  as  I 
trust  in  God,  we  shall  be  back  again  long  before  this  armament 
can  bestir  itself." 

So  Raleigh  came,  saw,  and  conquered.  Mrs.  Leigh  con- 
sented to  Amyas's  going  (for  his  twelvemonth  would  be  over 
ere  the  fleet  could  start)  upon  so  peaceful  and  useful  an  errand; 
and  the  next  five  months  were  spent  in  continual  labour  on  the 
part  of  Amyas  and  Grenvile,  till  seven  ships  were  all  but  ready 
in  Bideford  river,  the  admiral  whereof  was  Amyas  Leigh. 

But  that  fleet  was  not  destined  ever  to  see  the  shores  of  the 
New  World  :  it  had  nobler  work  to  do  (if  Americans  will  for- 
give the  speech)  than  even  settling  the  United  States. 

It  was  in  the  long  June  evenings,  in  the  year  1588  ;  Mrs. 
Leigh  sat  in  the  open  window,  busy  at  her  needle-work ;  Aya- 
canora  sat  opposite  to  her,  on  the  seat  of  the  bay,  trying 
diligently  to  read  "The  History  of  the  Nine  Worthies,"  and 
stealing  a  glance  every  now  and  then  towards  the  garden, 
where  Amyas  stalked  up  and  down  as  he  had  used  to  do  in 


.VJS  n,,\v    mi:  YII:..IM  \   i  i.i  i.i'  WAS       [CHAP.  xxix. 

happier  days  gone  by.  Hut  his  brow  was  contracted  now,  his 
eyes  fixed  on  the  ground,  as  he  plodded  Iwickwards  and  forwards 
his  hands  behind  his  Kick,  and  a  huge  cigar  in  his  mouth,  the 
wonder  Hi'  the  little  boys  of  Northam,  who  p.v|>rd  in  stealthily 
as  they  passed  the  iron-work  gates,  to  see  the  back  of  the  famous 
lire  lueathing  captain  who  had  sailed  round  the  world  and  l>een 
in  the  country  of  headless  men  and  flying  dragons,  and  then 
popped  back  their  heads  suddenly,  as  he  turned  toward  them  in 
his  walk.  And  Ayacanora  looked,  and  looked,  with  no  less 
admiration  than  the  urchins  at  the  gate :  but  she  got  no  more 
of  an  answering  look  from  Amyas  than  they  did  ;  for  his  head 
was  full  of  calculations  of  tonage  and  stowage,  of  salt  pork  and 
ale  barrels,  and  the  packing  of  tools  and  seeds ;  for  he  had  pro- 
mised Raleigh  to  do  his  best  for  the  new  colony,  and  he  was 
doing  it  with  all  his  might ;  so  Ayacanora  looked  back  again  to 
her  book,  and  heaved  a  deep  sigh.  It  was  answered  by  one 
from  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"We  are  a  melancholy  pair,  sweet  chuck,"  said  the  fair 
widow.  "What  is  my  maid  sighing  about,  there  1" 

"  Because  I  cannot  make  out  the  long  words,"  said  Ayaca- 
nora, telling  a  very  white  fib. 

"  Is  that  all  ?     Come  to  me,  and  I  will  tell  you." 

Ayacanora  moved  over  to  her,  and  sat  down  at  her  feet. 

"  H — e,  he,  r — o,  ro,  i — c — a — 1,  heroical,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 

"  But  what  does  that  mean  ?" 

"  Grand,  good,  and  brave,  like 

Mrs.  Leigh  was  about  to  have  said  the  name  of  one  who 
was  lost  to  her  on  earth.  His  fair  angelic  face  hung  opposite 
upon  the  wall.  She  paused  unable  to  pronounce  his  name ; 
and  lifted  up  her  eyes,  and  gazed  on  the  portrait,  and  breathed 
a  prayer  between  closed  lips,  and  drooped  her  head  again. 

Her  pupil  caught  at  the  pause,  and  filled  it  up  for  herself — 

"Like  himl"  and  she  turned  her  head  quickly  toward  tin- 
window. 

"Yes,  like  him,  too,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh,  with  a  half-smile  at 
the  gesture.  "  Now,  mind  your  book.  Maidens  must  not  look 
out  of  the  window  in  school  hours." 

"  Shall  I  ever  be  an  English  girl  t"  asked  Ayacanora. 

"  You  are  one  now,  sweet ;  your  father  was  an  English 
gentleman." 

Amyas  looked  in,  and  saw  the  two  sitting  together. 

"  You  seem  quite  merry  then-,"  said  he. 

"Come  in,  then,  and  be  merry  with  us." 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  529 

He  entered,  and  sat  down ;  while  Ayacanora  fixed  her  eyes 
most  steadfastly  on  her  book. 

"  Well,  how  goes  on  the  reading  1"  said  he ;  and  then, 
without  waiting  for  an  answer — "  We  shall  be  ready  to  clear 
out  this  day  week,  mother,  I  do  believe ;  that  is,  if  the  hatchets 
are  made  in  time  to  pack  them." 

"  I  hope  they  will  be  better  than  the  last,"  said  Mrs.  Leigh. 
"  It  seems  to  me  a  shameful  sin  to  palm  off  on  poor  ignorant 
savages  goods  which  we  should  consider  worthless  for  ourselves." 

"  Well,  it's  not  over  fair  :  but  still,  they  are  a  sight  better 
than  they  ever  had  before.  An  old  hoop  is  better  than  a  deer's 
bone,  as  Ayacanora  knows, — eh?" 

"  I  don't  know  anything  about  it,"  said  she,  who  was 
always  nettled  at  the  least  allusion  to  her  past  wild  life.  "  I 
am  an  English  girl  now,  and  all  that  is  gone — I  forget  it." 

"  Forget  it  1 "  said  he,  teasing  her  for  want  of  something 
better  to  do.  "  Should  not  you  like  to  sail  with  us,  now,  and 
see  the  Indians  in  the  forests  once  again  1 " 

"  Sail  with  you  1 "  and  she  looked  up  eagerly. 

"There!  I  knew  it!  She  would  not  be  four-and-twenty 
hours  ashore,  but  she  would  be  off  into  the  woods  again,  bow 
in  hand,  like  any  runaway  nymph,  and  we  should  never  see  her 
more." 

"  It  is  false,  bad  man  ! "  and  she  burst  into  violent  tears, 
and  hid  her  face  in  Mrs.  Leigh's  lap.. 

"Arnyas,  Amyas,  why  do  you  tease  the  poor  fatherless 
thing  r1 

"  I  was  only  jesting,  I'm  sure,"  said  Amyas,  like  a  repentant 
schoolboy.  "  Don't  cry  now,  don't  cry,  my  child,  see  here," 
and  he  began  fumbling  in  his  pockets  ;  "  see  what  I  bought  of 
a  chapman  in  town  to-day,  for  you,  my  maid,  indeed,  I  did." 

And  out  he  pulled  some  smart  kerchief  or  other,  which  had 
taken  his  sailor's  fancy. 

"  Look  at  it  now,  blue,  and  crimson,  and  green,  like  any 
parrot !  "  and  he  held  it  out. 

She  looked  round  sharply,  snatched  it  out  of  his  hand,  and 
tore  it  to  shreds. 

"  I  hate  it,  and  I  hate  you  ! "  and  she  sprang  up  and  darted 
out  of  the  room. 

"  Oh,  boy,  boy  !  "  said  Mrs.  Leigh,  "  will  you  kill  that 
poor  child  1  It  matters  little  for  an  old  heart  like  mine,  which 
has  but  one  or  two  chords  left  whole,  how  soon  it  be  broken 
altogether ;  but  a  young  heart  is  one  of  God's  precious  treasures, 

2  M 


530  HONV   mi:  VII;.;IM.\  1  1.1:1  i   WAS       [,-ii.\i-.  xxix. 


and  suffers  many  a  long  pang  in  the  breaking;  and 
woe  to  tin-in  wlm  ili-s|iisr  Christ's  little  ones!" 

"  r.n-:ik  yniir  In-art,  mother1?" 

••  N.'M-r  miml  my  heart,  dear  son  ;  yet  how  can  you  break 
it  nion-  siiivly  than  by  tormenting  one  whom  I  love,  because 
slit-  loves  you?" 

"  Tut  !  play,  mother,  and  maids'  tempers.  But  how  can  I 
break  your  heart?  What  have  I  done?  Have  I  not  given  up 
going  again  to  the  West  Indies  for  your  sake?  Have  I  not 
given  up  going  to  Virginia,  and  now  again  settled  to  go  after 
all,  just  because  you  commanded?  Was  it  not  your  will'l 
Have  I  not  obeyed  you,  mother,  mother  ?  I  will  stay  at  home 
now,  if  you  will.  I  would  rather  rust  here  on  land,  I  vow  I 
would,  than  grieve  you  -  "  and  he  threw  himself  at  his 
mother's  knees. 

"  Have  I  asked  you  not  to  go  to  Virginia?  No,  dear  boy, 
though  every  thought  of  a  fresh  parting  seems  to  crack  some 
new  fibre  within  me,  you  must  go  !  It  is  your  calling.  Yes  ; 
you  were  not  sent  into  the  world  to  amuse  me,  but  to  work. 
I  have  had  pleasure  enough  of  you,  my  darling,  for  many  a  year, 
and  too  much,  perhaps  ;  till  I  shrank  from  lending  you  to  the 
Lord.  But  He  must  have  you.  ...  It  is  enough  for  the  poor 
old  widow  to  know  that  her  boy  is  what  he  is,  and  to  forget  all 
her  anguish  day  by  day,  for  joy  that  a  man  is  born  into  the 
world.  But,  Amyas,  Amyas,  are  you  so  blind  as  not  to  see 
that  Ayacanora  --  " 

"Don't  talk  about  her,  poor  child.     Talk  about  yourself." 

"  How  long  have  I  been  worth  talking  about  ?  No,  Amyas, 
you  must  see  it  ;  and  if  you  will  not  see  it  now,  you  will  see  it 
one  day  in  some  sad  and  fearful  prodigy  ;  for  she  is  not  one  to 
die  tamely.  She  loves  you,  Amyas,  as  a  woman  only  can 
love." 

"  Loves  me  ?  Well,  of  course.  I  found  her,  and  brought 
her  home  ;  and  I  don't  deny  she  may  think  that  she  owes  me 
somewhat—  though  it  was  no  more  than  a  Christian  man's  duty. 
But  as  for  her  caring  much  for  me,  mother,  you  measure  every 
one  else's  tenderness  by  your  own." 

"  Think  that  she  owes  you  somewhat  ?  Silly  boy,  this  is 
not  gratitude,  but  a  deeper  affection,  which  may  be  more 
heavenly  than  gratitude,  as  it  may,  too,  become  a  horrible  cause 
of  ruin.  It  rests  with  you,  Amyas,  which  of  the  two  it  will 
be." 

"  You  are  in  earnest  ?  " 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  531 

"  Have  I  the  heart  or  the  time  to  jest  ?  " 

"  No,  no,  of  course  not ;  but,  mother,  I  thought  it  was  not 
comely  for  women  to  fall  in  love  with  men  1 " 

"  Not  comely,  at  least,  to  confess  their  love  to  men.  But 
she  has  never  done  that,  Amyas ;  not  even  by  a  look  or  a  tone 
of  voice,  though  I  have  watched  her  for  months." 

"  To  be  sure,  she  is  as  demure  as  any  cat  when  I  am  in  the 
way.  I  only  wonder  how  you  found  it  out." 

"  Ah,"  said  she,  smiling  sadly,  "  even  in  the  saddest  woman's 
soul  there  linger  snatches  of  old  music,  odours  of  flowers  long 
dead  and  turned  to  dust — pleasant  ghosts,  which  still  keep  her 
mind  attuned  to  that  which  may  be  in  others,  though  in  her 
never  more ;  till  she  can  hear  her  own  wedding-hymn  re-echoed 
in  the  tones  of  every  girl  who  loves,  and  sees  her  own  wedding- 
torch  re-lighted  in  the  eyes  of  every  bride." 

"  You  would  not  have  me  marry  her  1 "  asked  blunt,  practi- 
cal Amyas. 

"God  knows  what  I  would  have — I  know  not;  I  see 
neither  your  path  nor  my  own — no,  not  after  weeks  and  months 
of  prayer.  All  things  beyond  are  wrapped  in  mist ;  and  what 
will  be,  I  know  not,  save  that  whatever  else  is  wrong,  mercy  at 
least  is  right." 

"I'd  sail  to-morrow,  if  I  could.  As  for  marrying  her, 
mother — her  birth,  mind  me " 

"  Ah,  boy,  boy  !  Are  you  God,  to  visit  the  sins  of  the 
parents  upon  the  children  1 " 

"  Not  that.  I  don't  mean  that ;  but  I  mean  this,  that  she 
is  half  a  Spaniard,  mother ;  and  I  cannot ! — Her  blood  may  be 
as  blue  as  King  Philip's  own,  but  it  is  Spanish  still !  I  cannot 
bear  the  thought  that  my  children  should  have  in  their  veins 
one  drop  of  that  poison." 

"  Amyas  !  Amyas  !  "  interrupted  she,  "  is  this  not,  too, 
visiting  the  parents'  sins  on  the  children  ? " 

"  Not  a  whit ;  it  is  common  sense, — she  must  have  the 
taint  of  their  bloodthirsty  humour.  She  has  it — I  have  seen  it 
in  her  again  and  again.  I  have  told  you,  have  I  not  1  Can 
I  forget  the  look  of  her  eyes  as  she  stood  over  that  galleon's 
captain,  with  the  smoking  knife  in  her  hand. — Ugh !  And 
she  is  not  tamed  yet,  as  you  can  see,  and  never  will  be : — not 
that  I  care,  except  for  her  own  sake,  poor  thing  !  " 

"  Cruel  boy !  to  impute  as  a  blame  to  the  poor  child,  not 
only  the  errors  of  her  training,  but  the  very  madness  of  her 
love!" 


HOW   i  in;  vii:i;iM.\  11.1:1:1    \v.\s      [, .,,A,..  x\-i.\. 
"Of  bar  lore  t" 

"Of  what  rl>«',  liliml  l>u/./anl  'I  Fnnii  tin-  moment  that 
you  tnl.l  me  the  story  of  that  captain's  death,  I  km-w  what  \\a- 
in  her  heart  ami  thus  it  is  that  you  requite  her  for  having 
saved  your  life !" 

"  Umph  !  that  is  one  word  too  much,  mother.  If  you 
don't  want  to  send  me  crazy,  don't  put  the  tiling  <»M  the  score  of 
gratitude  or  duty.  As  it  is,  I  can  hardly  speak  ci\illy  to  IHT 
(God  forgive  me  !)  when  I  recollect  that  she  belongs  to  tin  •  -n  w 
who  murdered  him" — and  he  pointed  to  the  picture,  ami  Mrs. 
Leigh  shuddered  as  he  did  so. 

"You  feel  it!  You  know  you  feel  it,  tender-hearted,  for- 
giving angel  as  you  are ;  and  what  do  you  think  I  must  feel  ?" 

"Oh,  my  son,  my  son  !"  cried  she,  wringing  her  hands,  "if 
I  be  wretch  enough  to  give  place  to  the  devil  for  a  moment, 
does  that  give  you  a  right  to  entertain  and  cherish  him  thus 
day  by  day  1" 

"  I  should  cherish  him  with  a  vengeance,  if  I  brought  up  a 
crew  of  children  who  could  boast  of  a  pedigree  of  idolaters  and 
tyrants,  hunters  of  Indians,  and  torturers  of  women !  How 
pleasant  to  hear  her  telling  Master  Jack,  'Your  illustrious 
grand-uncle  the  pope's  legate,  was  the  man  who  burned  Rose 
Salterne  at  Carthagena ;'  or  Miss  Grace,  '  Your  great  grandfather 
of  sixteen  quarterings,  the  Marquis  of  this,  son  of  the  Grand- 
equerry  that,  and  husband  of  the  Princess  t'other,  used  to  feed 
his  bloodhounds,  when  beef  was  scarce,  with  Indians'  babies!' 
Eh,  mother?  These  things  are  true,  and  if  you  can  forget 
them,  I  cannot.  Is  it  not  enough  to  have  made  me  forego  for 
awhile  my  purpose,  my  business,  the  one  thing  I  live  for,  and 
that  is,  hunting  down  the  Spaniards  as  I  would  adders  or 
foxes,  but  you  must  ask  me  over  and  above  to  take  one  to 
my  bosom  V 

"  Oh,  my  son,  my  son  !  I  have  not  asked  you  to  do  that ;  I 
have  only  commanded  you,  in  God's  name,  to  be  merciful,  if 
you  wish  to  obtain  mercy.  Oh,  if  you  will  not  pity  this  poor 
maiden,  pity  yourself ;  for  God  knows  you  stand  in  more  need 
of  it  than  she  does  ! " 

Amyas  was  silent  for  a  minute  or  two ;  and  then, — 

"  If  it  were  not  for  you,  mother,  would  God  that  tie  Armada 
would  come ! " 

"  What,  and  ruin  England  1" 

"  No !  Curse  them !  Not  a  foot  will  they  ever  set  on 
English  soil,  such  a  welcome  would  we  give  them.  If  I  were 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  533 

but  in  the  midst  of  that  fleet,  fighting  like  a  man — to  forget  it 
all,  with  a  galleon  on  board  of  me  to  larboard,  and  another  to 
sta-rboard — and  then  to  put  a  linstock  in  the  magazine,  and  go 
aloft  in  good  company — I  don't  care  how  soon  it  comes,  mother, 
if  it  were  not  for  you." 

"  If  I  am  in  your  way,  Amyas,  do  not  fear  that  I  shall 
trouble  you  long." 

"  Oh,  mother,  mother,  do  not  talk  in  that  way !  I  am 
half-mad,  I  think,  already,  and  don't  know  what  I  say.  Yes, 
I  am  mad ;  mad  at  heart,  though  not  at  head.  There's  a  fire 
burning  me  up,  night  and  day,  and  nothing  but  Spanish  blood 
will  put  it  out." 

"  Or  the  grace  of  God,  my  poor  wilful  child  !  Who  comes 
to  the  door1? — so  quickly,  too?" 

There  was  a  loud  hurried  knocking,  and  in  another  minute  a 
serving-man  hurried  in  with  a  letter. 

"  This  to  Captain  Amyas  Leigh  with  haste,  haste !" 

It  was  Sir  Richard's  hand.  Amyas  tore  it  open ;  and  "  a 
loud  laugh  laughed  he." 

"  The  Armada  is  coming !  My  wish  has  come  true, 
mother !" 

"  God  help  us,  it  has  !     Show  me  the  letter." 

It  was  a  hurried  scrawl. 

"DR-  GODSON, 

"  Walsingham  sends  word  that  the  A(la-  sailed 
from  Lisbon  to  the  Groyne  the  18.  of  May.  We  know  no 
more,  but  have  commandment  to  stay  the  ships.  Come  down, 
dear  lad,  and  give  us  counsel;  and  may  the  Lord  help  His 
Church  in  this  great  strait. 

"Your  loving  godfather,  R.  G." 

Forgive  me,  mother,  mother,  once  for  all ! "  cried  Amyas, 
throwing  his  arms  round  her  neck. 

"  I  have  nothing  to  forgive,  my  son,  my  son  !  And  shall  I 
lose  thee,  also  1" 

"If  I  be  killed,  you  will  have  two  martyrs  of  your  blood, 
mother ! — 

Mrs.  Leigh  bowed  her  head,  and  was  silent.  Amyas  caught 
up  his  hat  and  sword,  and  darted  forth  toward  Bideford. 

Amyas  literally  danced  into  Sir  Richard's  hall,  where  he 
stood  talking  earnestly  with  various  merchants  and  captains. 

"  Gloria,  gloria !  gentles  all !  The  devil  is  broke  loose  at 
last ;  and  now  we  know  where  to  have  him  on  the  hip  ! " 


534  HOW  THE  VIRGINIA  FLEET  WAS       [CUM-.  xx-,x 

"Why  BO  merry,  Captain  Leigh,  when  all  else  are  sad?" 
said  a  gentle  voice  by  his  side. 

"  Because  I  have  been  sad  a  long  time,  while  all  else  were 
im-rry,  dear  lady.  Is  the  hawk  doleful  when  his  hood  is  pulled 
nil1,  :nid  he  sees  the  heron  flapping  right  ahead  of  him  .'  ' 

"  You  seem  to  forget  the  danger  and  the  woe  of  us  weak 
women,  sirl" 

"  I  don't  forget  the  danger  and  the  woe  of  one  weak  woman, 
Madam,  and  she  the  daughter  of  a  man  who  once  stood  in  this 
room,"  said  Amyas,  suddenly  collecting  himself,  in  a  low  stern 
voice.  "And  I  don't  forget  the  danger  and  the  woe  of  mir  \vh<. 
was  worth  a  thousand  even  of  her.  I  don't  forget  anything, 
Madam." 

"  Nor  forgive  either,  it  seems." 

"  It  will  be  time  to  talk  of  forgiveness  after  the  offender  has 
repented  and  amended  :  and  does  the  sailing  of  the  Armada  look 
like  that  1" 

"Alas  no!     God  help  us!" 

"  He  will  help  us,  Madam,"  said  Amyas. 

"Admiral  Leigh,"  said  Sir  Richard,  "we  need  you  now,  if 
ever.  Here  are  the  queen's  orders  to  furnish  as  many  ships  as 
we  can ;  though  from  these  gentlemen's  spirit,  I  should  say  the 
orders  were  well-nigh  needless." 

"  Not  a  doubt,  sir ;  for  my  part,  I  will  fit  my  ship  at  my 
own  charges,  and  fight  her  too,  as  long  as  I  have  a  leg  or  an 
arm  left." 

"Or  a  tongue  to  say,  never  surrender,  111  warrant!"  said 
an  old  merchant.  "  You  put  life  into  us  old  fellows,  Admiral 
Leigh  :  but  it  will  be  a  heavy  matter  for  those  poor  fellows  in 
Virginia,  and  for  my  daughter  too,  Madam  Dare,  with  her  young 
babe,  as  I  hear,  just  born." 

"  And  a  very  heavy  matter,"  said  some  one  elqe,  "  for  those 
who  have  ventured  their  money  in  these  cargoes,  which  must 
lie  idle,  you  see,  now  for  a  year  maybe — and  then  all  the  cost 
of  unlading  again " 

"My  good  sir,"  said  Grenvile,  "what  have  private  interests 
to  do  with  this  day  ?  Let  us  thank  God  if  He  only  please  to 
leave  us  the  bare  fee-simple  of  this  English  soil,  the  honour  of 
our  wives  and  daughters,  and  bodies  safe  from  rack  and  fagot, 
to  wield  the  swords  of  freemen  in  defence  of  a  free  land,  even 
though  every  town  and  homestead  in  England  were  wasted  with 
fire,  and  we  left  to  rebuild  over  again  all  which  our  ancestors 
have  wrought  for  us  in  now  six  hundred  years." 


CHAP.  XXIX.]     STOPPED  BY  THE  QUEEN'S  COMMAND.  535 

"  Right,  sir ! "  said  Amyas.  "  For  my  part,  let  my  Virginian 
goods  rot  on  the  quay,  if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst.  I  begin 
unloading  the  Vengeance  to-morrow ;  and  to  sea  as  soon  as  I 
can  fill  up  my  crew  to  a  good  fighting  number." 

And  so  the  talk  ran  on ;  and  ere  two  days  were  past,  most 
of  the  neighbouring  gentlemen,  summoned  by  Sir  Richard,  had 
come  in,  and  great  was  the  bidding  against  each  other  as  to  who 
should  do  most.  Gary  and  Brimblecombe,  with  thirty  tall 
Clovelly  men,  came  across  the  bay,  and  without  even  asking 
leave  of  Amyas,  took  up  their  berths  as  a  matter  of  course  on 
board  the  Vengeance.  In  the  meanwhile,  the  matter  was  taken 
up  by  families.  The  Fortescues  (a  numberless  clan)  offered  to 
furnish  a  ship ;  the  Chichesters  another,  the  Stukelys  a  third ; 
while  the  merchantmen  were  not  backward.  The  Bucks,  the 
Stranges,  the  Heards,  joyfully  unloaded  their  Virginian  goods,  and 
replaced  them  with  powder  and  shot ;  and  in  a  week's  time  the 
whole  seven  were  ready  once  more  for  sea,  and  dropped  down 
into  Appledore  pool,  with  Amyas  as  their  admiral  for  the  time 
being  (for  Sir  Richard  had  gone  by  land  to  Plymouth  to  join  the 
deliberations  there),  and  waited  for  the  first  favourable  wind  to 
start  for  the  rendezvous  in  the  Sound. 

At  last,  upon  the  twenty -first  of  June,  the  clank  of  the 
capstans  rang  merrily  across  the  flats,  and  amid  prayers  and 
blessings,  forth  sailed  that  gallant  squadron  over  the  bar,  to  play 
their  part  in  Britain's  Salamis ;  while  Mrs.  Leigh  stood  watch- 
ing as  she  stood  once  before,  beside  the  churchyard  wall :  but  not 
alone  this  time;  for  Ayacanora  stood  by  her  side,  and  gazed  and 
gazed,  till  her  eyes  seemed  ready  to  burst  from  their  sockets. 
At  last  she  turned  away  with  a  sob, — 

"And  he  never  bade  me  good-bye,  mother  !" 

"God  forgive  him  !  Come  home  and  pray,  my  child;  there 
is  no  other  rest  on  earth  than  prayer  for  woman's  heart ! " 

They  were  calling  each  other  mother  and  daughter  then  ? 
Yes.  The  sacred  fire  of  sorrow  was  fast  burning  out  all  Aya- 
canora's  fallen  savageness ;  and,  like  a  Phoenix,  the  true  woman 
was  rising  from  those  ashes,  fair,  noble,  and  all -enduring,  as 
God  had  made  her. 


HOW  ADMIRAL  JOHN  HAWKINS          [CHAI-.  xx\. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

HOW  THK  ADMIRAL  JOHN   HAWKINS  TESTIFIED  AGAINST 
CROAKERS. 

"  Oh,  where  he  these  gay  Spaniards, 
Which  make  BO  great  a  boast  O  ? 
Oh,  they  shall  eat  the  grey-goose  feather, 
And  we  ghall  eat  the  roast  0  ! " 

Cornish  Song. 

WHAT  if  the  spectators  who  last  summer  gazed  -with  just 
upon  the  noble  port  of  Plymouth,  its  vast  breakwater  spanning 
the  Sound,  its  arsenals  and  docks,  its  two  estuaries  filled  with 
gallant  ships,  and  watched  the  great  screw-liners  turning  within 
their  own  length  by  force  invisible,  or  threading  the  crowded 
fleets  with  the  ease  of  the  tiniest  boat; — what  if,  by  some  magic 
turn,  the  nineteenth  century,  and  all  the  magnificence  of  its 
wealth  and  science,  had  vanished — as  it  may  vanish  hereafter — 
and  they  had  found  themselves  thrown  back  three  hundred 
years  into  the  pleasant  summer  days  of  1 588 1 

Mount  Edgecombe  is  still  there,  beautiful  as  ever :  but 
where  are  the  docks,  and  where  is  Devonport  ?  No  vast  dry- 
dock  roofs  rise  at  the  water's  edge.  Drake's  island  carries  but 
a  paltry  battery,  just  raised  by  the  man  whose  name  it  bears ; 
Mount  Wise  is  a  lone  gentleman's  house  among  fields;  tin- 
citadel  is  a  pop-gun  fort,  which  a  third  class  steamer  would  shell 
into  rubble  for  an  afternoon's  amusement.  And  the  shipping, 
where  are  they?  The  floating  castles  of  the  Hamoaze  have 
dwindled  to  a  few  crawling  lime -hoys ;  and  the  Catwater  is 
packed,  not  as  now,  with  merchant  craft,  but  with  the  ships 
who  will  to-morrow  begin  the  greatest  sea-fight  which  the  world 
has  ever  seen. 

There  they  lie,  a  paltry  squadron  enough  in  modern  eyes ; 
the  largest  of  them  not  equal  in  size  to  a  six -and -thirty  gun 
frigate,  carrying  less  weight  of  metal  than  one  of  our  new  gun- 
boats, and  able  to  employ  even  that  at  not  more  than  a  quarter 
of  our  modern  range.  Would  our  modern  spectators,  just  come 
down  by  rail  for  a  few  hours,  to  see  the  cavalry  embark,  and 
return  to-morrow  in  time  for  dinner,  have  looked  down  upon  that 
petty  port,  and  petty  fleet,  with  a  contemptuous  smile,  and 
begun  some  flippant  speech  about  the  progress  of  intellect,  and 


CHAP.  XXX.]          TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  537 

the  triumphs  of  science,  and  our  benighted  ancestors'?  They 
would  have  done  so,  doubt  it  not,  if  they  belonged  to  the  many 
who  gaze  on  those  very  triumphs  as  on  a  raree-show  to  feed 
their  silly  wonder,  or  use  and  enjoy  them  without  thankfulness 
or  understanding,  as  the  ox  eats  the  clover  thrust  into  his  rack, 
without  knowing  or  caring  how  it  grew.  But  if  any  of  them 
were  of  the  class  by  whom  those  very  triumphs  have  been 
achieved;  the  thinkers  and  the  workers,  who,  instead  of  entering 
lazily  into  other  men's  labours,  as  the  mob  does,  labour  them- 
selves ;  who  know  by  hard  experience  the  struggles,  the  self- 
restraints,  the  disappointments,  the  slow  and  staggering  steps, 
by  which  the  discoverer  reaches  to  his  prize ;  then  the  smile  of 
those  men  would  not  have  been  one  of  pity,  but  rather  of  filial 
love.  For  they  would  have  seen  in  those  outwardly  paltry 
armaments  the  potential  germ  of  that  mightier  one  which  now 
loads  the  Black  Sea  waves ;  they  would  have  been  aware,  that 
to  produce  it,  with  such  materials  and  knowledge  as  then  existed, 
demanded  an  intellect,  an  energy,  a  spirit  of  progress  and  inven- 
tion, equal,  if  not  superior,  to  those  of  which  we  now  so  loudly 
boast. 

But  if,  again,  he  had  been  a  student  of  men  rather  than  of 
machinery,  he  would  have  found  few  nobler  companies  on  whom 
to  exercise  his  discernment,  than  he  might  have  seen  in  the  little 
terrace  bowling-green  behind  the  Pelican  Inn,  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  nineteenth  of  July.  Chatting  in  groups,  or  lounging  over 
the  low  wall  which  commanded  a  view  of  the  Sound  and  the 
shipping  far  below,  were  gathered  almost  every  notable  man  of 
the  Plymouth  fleet,  the  whole  posse  comrtatus  of  "  England's 
forgotten  worthies."  The  Armada  has  been  scattered  by  a 
storm.  Lord  Howard  has  been  out  to  look  for  it,  as  far  as  the 
Spanish  coast ;  but  the  wind  has  shifted  to  the  south,  and  fear- 
ing lest  the  Dons  should  pass  him,  he  has  returned  to  Plymouth, 
uncertain  whether  the  Armada  will  come  after  all  or  not.  Slip 
on  for  a  while,  like  Prince  Hal,  the  drawer's  apron ;  come  in 
through  the  rose-clad  door  which  opens  from  the  tavern,  with  a 
tray  of  long-necked  Dutch  glasses,  and  a  silver  tankard  of  wine, 
and  look  round  you  at  the  gallant  captains,  who  are  waiting  for 
the  Spanish  Armada,  as  lions  in  their  lair  might  wait  for  the 
passing  herd  of  deer. 

See  those  five  talking  earnestly,  in  the  centre  of  a  ring, 
which  longs  to  overhear,  and  yet  is  too  respectful  to  approach 
close.  Those  soft  long  eyes  and  pointed  chin  you  recognise 
already;  they  are  Walter  Raleigh's.  The  fair  young  man  in 


"».?S  HOW  ADMIRAL  JOHN  HAWKIN^  [.HAT.  XXX. 

the  flame-coloured  doublet,  whose  arm  is  round  Raleigh's  neck, 
is  I^ord  Sheffield  ;  i>|i|N>sitc  them  stands,  by  the  side  of  Sir 
iJichard  (iivnvile,  a  man  as  .-lately  <  veil  as  he,  Lord  Sheffield's 
unclf,  the  Lord  Charles  Howard  of  Elfingham,  Lord  Hi-li 
Admiral  of  Midland;  next  to  him  is  his  son-iu-law,  Sir  Robert 
Southwell,  captain  of  the  Elizabeth  Jonas:  but  who  is  that 
short,  sturdy,  plainly  dressed  man,  who  stands  with  legs  a  little 
apart,  and  hands  behind  his  back,  looking  up,  with  keen  ^n-y 
eyes,  into  the  face  of  each  speaker?  His  cap  is  in  his  hands, 
so  you  can  see  the  bullet  head  of  crisp  brown  hair  and  the 
wrinkled  forehead,  as  well  as  the  high  cheek  bones,  the  short 
square  face,  the  broad  temples,  the  thick  lips,  which  are  yet 
firm  as  granite.  A  coarse  plebeian  stamp  of  man :  yet  the  whole 
figure  and  attitude  are  that  of  boundless  determination,  self-pos- 
session, energy ;  and  when  at  last  he  speaks  a  few  blunt  words, 
all  eyes  are  turned  respectfully  upon  him ; — for  his  name  is 
Francis  Drake. 

A  burly,  grizzled  elder,  in  greasy  sea-stained  garments,  con- 
trasting oddly  with  the  huge  gold  chain  about  his  neck,  waddles 
up,  as  if  he  had  been  born,  and  had  lived  ever  since,  in  a 
gale  of  wind  at  sea.  The  upper  half  of  his  sharp  dogged  visage 
seems  of  brick-red  leather,  the  lower  of  badger's  fur ;  and  as 
he  claps  Drake  on  the  back,  and,  with  a  broad  Devon  twang, 
shouts,  "  Be  you  a  coming  to  drink  your  wine,  Francis  Drake, 
or  be  you  not  ? — saving  your  presence,  my  Lord;"  the  Lord  HiJi 
Admiral  only  laughs,  and  bids  Drake  go  and  drink  his  win.- ; 
for  John  Hawkins,  Admiral  of  the  port,  is  the  Patriarch  of 
Plymouth  seamen,  if  Drake  be  their  hero,  and  says  and  does 
pretty  much  what  he  likes  in  any  company  on  earth ;  not  to 
mention  that  to-day's  prospect  of  an  Armageddon  fight  has 
shaken  him  altogether  out  of  his  usual  crabbed  reserve,  and 
made  him  overflow  with  loquacious  good -humour,  even  to  his 
rival  Drake. 

So  they  push  through  the  crowd,  wherein  is  many  another 
man  whom  one  would  gladly  have  spoken  with  face  to  face  on 
earth.  Martin  Frobisher  and  John  Davis  are  sitting  on  that 
bench,  smoking  tobacco  from  long  silver  pipes ;  and  by  them 
are  Fenton  and  Withrington,  who  have  both  tried  to  follow 
Drake's  path  round  the  world,  and  failed,  though  by  no  fault  of 
their  own.  The  man  who  pledges  them  better  luck  next  time, 
is  George  Fenner,  known  to  "  the  seven  Portugals,"  Leicester's 
pet,  and  captain  of  the  galleon  which  Elizalirth  bought  of  him. 
That  short  prim  man  in  the  huge  yeUgw  ruff,  with  sharp  chin, 


CHAP.  XXX.]  TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  539 

minute  imperial,  and  self-satisfied  smile,  is  Richard  Hawkins, 
the  Complete  Seaman,  Admiral  John's  hereafter  famous  and 
hapless  son.  The  elder  who  is  talking  with  him  is  his  good 
uncle  William,  whose  monument  still  stands,  or  should  stand, 
in  Deptford  Church ;  for  Admiral  John  set  it  up  there  but  one 
year  after  this  time ;  and  on  it  record  how  he  was,  "  A  wor- 
shipper of  the  true  religion,  an  especial  benefactor  of  poor  sailors, 
a  most  just  arbiter  in  most  difficult  causes,  and  of  a  singular 
faith,  piety,  and  prudence."  That,  and  the  fact  that  he  got 
creditably  through  some  sharp  work  at  Porto  Rico,  is  all  I  know 
of  William  Hawkins  :  but  if  you  or  I,  reader,  can  have  as  much 
or  half  as  much  said  of  us  when  we  have  to  follow  him,  we  shall 
have  no  reason  to  complain. 

There  is  John  Drake,  Sir  Francis'  brother,  ancestor  of  the 
present  stock  of  Drakes ;  and  there  is  George,  his  nephew,  a 
man  not  overwise,  who  has  been  round  the  world  with  Amyas ; 
and  there  is  Amyas  himself,  talking  to  one  who  answers  him 
with  fierce  curt  sentences,  Captain  Barker  of  Bristol,  brother  of 
the  hapless  Andrew  Barker  who  found  John  Oxenham's  guns, 
and,  owing  to  a  mutiny  among  his  men,  perished  by  the 
Spaniards  in  Honduras,  twelve  years  ago.  Barker  is  now 
captain  of  the  Victory,  one  of  the  queen's  best  ships ;  and  he 
has  his  accounts  to  settle  with  the  Dons,  as  Amyas  has ;  so 
they  are  both  growling  together  in  a  corner,  while  all  the  rest 
are  as  merry  as  the  flies  upon  the  vine  above  their  heads. 

But  who  is  the  aged  man  who  sits  upon  a  bench,  against 
the  sunny  south  wall  of  the  tavern,  his  long  white  beard 
flowing  almost  to  his  waist,  his  hands  upon  his  knees,  his 
palsied  head  moving  slowly  from  side  to  side,  to  catch  the 
scraps  of  discourse  of  the  passing  captains?  His  great  grand- 
child, a  little  maid  of  six,  has  laid  her  curly  head  upon  his 
knees,  and  his  grand-daughter,  a  buxom  black-eyed  dame  of 
thirty,  stands  by  him  and  tends  him,  half  as  nurse,  and  half, 
too,  as  showman,  for  he  seems  an  object  of  curiosity  to  all  the 
captains,  and  his  fair  nurse  has  to  entreat  again  and  again, 
"  Bless  you  sir,  please  now,  don't  give  him  no  liquor,  poor  old 
soul,  the  doctor  says."  It  is  old  Martin  Cockrem,  father  of  the 
ancient  host,  aged  himself  beyond  the  years  of  man,  who  can 
recollect  the  bells  of  Plymouth  ringing  for  the  coronation  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  and  who  was  the  first  Englishman,  perhaps, 
who  ever  set  foot  on  the  soil  of  the  New  World.  There  he 
sits,  like  an  old  Druid  Tor  of  primeval  granite  amid  the  tall 
wheat  and  rich  clover  r"";->s  of  a  modern  farm.  He  has  seen 


540  HOW  ADMIRAL  JOHN  HAWKINS          [CHAI 

the  death  of  old  Europe  nnd  the  birth-throes  of  the  new.  Go 
to  him,  aii'l  >|iicstimi  him;  for  his  senses  are  quick  as  ever;  and 
just  now  the  old  man  seems  uneasy.  He  is  peering  with  rheumy 
eyes  through  the  groups,  and  seems  listening  for  a  well-known 
voice. 

"  There  'a  be  again  !     Why  don't  'a  come,  tin  u  /" 

"  Quiet,  Gramfer,  and  don't  trouble  his  worship." 

"  Here  an  hour,  and  never  speak  to  poor  old  Martin  !  I 
say,  sir" — and  the  old  man  feebly  plucks  Amyas's  cloak  as  he 
passes.  "  I  say,  captain,  do'e  teU  young  master  old  Martin's 
looking  for  him." 

"  Marcy,  Gramfer,  where's  your  manners  ?  Don't  be  vexed, 
sir,  he'm  a'most  a  babe,  and  tejous  at  times,  mortal." 

"  Young  master  who  ?"  says  Amyas,  bending  down  to  the 
old  man,  and  smiling  to  the  dame  to  let  him  have  his  way. 

"  Master  Hawkins ;  he'm  never  been  a-near  me  all  day." 

Off  goes  Amyas ;  and,  of  course,  lays  hold  of  the  sleeve  of 
young  Richard  Hawkins ;  but  as  he  is  in  act  to  speak,  the 
dame  lays  hold  of  his,  laughing  and  blushing. 

"No,  sir,  not  Mr.  Richard,  sir;  Admiral  John,  sir,  his 
father ;  he  always  calls  him  young  master,  poor  old  soul !"  and 
she  points  to  the  grizzled  beard  and  the  face  scarred  and  tanned 
with  fifty  years  of  fight  and  storm. 

Amyas  goes  to  the  Admiral,  and  gives  his  message. 

"Mercy  on  me  !  Where  be  my  wits?  IBS,  I'm  a-coming," 
says  the  old  hero  in  his  broadest  Devon,  waddles  off  to  the  old 
man,  and  begins  lugging  at  a  pocket.  "  Here,  Martin,  I've  got 
mun,  I've  got  mun,  man  alive ;  but  his  Lordship  keept  me  so. 
Lookee  here,  then  !  Why,  I  do  get  so  lusty  of  late,  Martin,  I 
can't  get  to  my  pockets  ! " 

And  out  struggle  a  piece  of  tarred  string,  a  bundle  of 
papers,  a  thimble,  a  piece  of  pudding-tobacco,  and  last  of  all,  a 
little  paper  of  Muscovado  sugar — then  as  great  a  delicacy  as 
any  French  bonbons  would  be  now — which  he  thrusts  into  the 
old  man's  eager  and  trembling  hand. 

Old  Martin  begins  dipping  his  finger  into  it,  and  rubbing  it 
on  his  toothless  gums,  smiling  and  nodding  thanks  to  his  young 
master ;  while  the  little  maid  at  his  knee,  unrebuked,  takes  her 
share  also. 

"  There,  Admiral  Leigh ;  both  ends  meet — gramfers  and 
babies !  You  and  I  shall  be  like  to  that  one  day,  young 
Samson  ! " 

"  We  shall  have  slain  a  good  many  Philistines  first,  I  hope." 


CHAP.  XXX.]         TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  541 

"  Amen  !  so  be  it ;  but  look  to  mun  !  so  fine  a  sailor  as 
ever  drank  liquor ;  and  now  greedy  after  a  bit  of  sweet  trade  ! 
'tis  piteous  like ;  but  I  bring  mun  a  bit  whenever  I  come,  and 
he  looks  for  it.  He's  one  of  my  own  flesh  like,  is  old  Martin. 
He  sailed  with  my  father  Captain  Will,  when  they  was  both 
two  little  cracks  aboard  of  a  trawler ;  and  my  father  went  up, 
and  here  I  am — he  didn't,  and  there  he  is.  We'm  up  now,  we 
Hawkinses.  We  may  be  down  again  some  day." 

"  Never,  I  trust,"  said  Amyas. 

"  'Tain't  no  use  trusting,  young  man  :  you  go  and  do.  I  do 
hear  too  much  of  that  there  from  my  lad.  Let  they  ministers 
preach  till  they'm  black  in  the  face,  works  is  the  trade  !"  with  a 
nudge  in  Amyas's  ribs.  "  Faith  can't  save,  nor  charity  nether. 
There,  you  tell  with  him,  while  I  go  play  bowls  with  Drake. 
He'll  tell  you  a  sight  of  stories.  You  ask  him  about  good  King 
Hal,  now,  just — 

And  off  waddled  the  Port  Admiral. 

"You  have  seen  good  King  Henry,  then,  father?"  said 
Amyas,  interested. 

The  old  man's  eyes  lighted  at  once,  and  he  stopped  mum- 
bling his  sugar. 

"  Seed  mun  1  Iss,  I  reckon.  I  was  with  Captain  Will 
when  he  went  to  meet  the  Frenchman  there  to  Calais — at  the 
Field,  the  Field " 

"The  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold,  Gramfer,"  suggested  the 
dame. 

"  That's  it.  Seed  mun  1  Iss,  fegs.  Oh,  he  was  a  king  ! 
The  face  o'  mun  like  a  rising  sun,  and  the  back  o'  mun  so  broad 
as  that  there  "  (and  he  held  out  his  palsied  arms),  "  and  the 
voice  of  mun  !  Oh,  to  hear  mun  swear  if  he  was  merry,  oh, 
'twas  royal ! — Seed  mun  1  Iss,  fegs  !  And  I've  seed  mun  do 
what  few  has ;  I've  seed  mun  christle  like  any  child." 

"What — cry?"  said  Amyas.  "I  shouldn't  have  thought 
there  was  much  cry  in  him." 

"  You  think  what  you  like " 

"  Gramfer,  Gramfer,  don't  you  be  rude,  now 

"  Let  him  go  on,"  said  Amyas. 

"  I  seed  mun  christle ;  and,  oh  dear,  how  he  did  put  hands 
on  mun's  face ;  and  '  Oh,  my  gentlemen,'  says  he,  '  my  gentle- 
men !  Oh,  my  gallant  men  !'  Them  was  his  very  words." 

"But  when?" 

"  Why,  Captain  Will  had  just  come  to  the  Hard — that's  to 
Portsmouth — to  speak  with  mun,  and  the  barge  Royal  lay  again 


.'12  HOW  ADMIRAL  JOHN  HAWKINS  [.  HAP.  XXX. 

tin-  Hard — so;  and  our  boot  alongside — so;  and  the  king  he 
Btandth  as  it  might  be  there,  above  my  head,  on  the  quay 
:md  she  mini'  in  near  altreastof  us,  liMtkin^  most  royal  tobelmld, 
l»«>or  dear!  and  wont  to  cast  about.  And  Captain  Will,  Kiith 
In-,  '  Them  lower  ports  is  cruel  near  the  water ;'  for  she  had  not 
UK m-  than  a  sixteen  inches  to  spare  in  the  nether  overloop,  as  I 
heard  after.  And  saith  he,  '  That  won't  do  for  going  to  wind- 
ward in  a  say,  Martin.'  And  as  the  words  came  out  of  mun's 
iin mth,  your  worship,  there  was  a  bit  of  a  flaw  from  the  west- 
ward, sharp  like,  and  overboard  goeth  my  cap,  and  hitth  ajsiinst 
the  wall,  and  as  I  stooped  to  pick  it  up,  I  heard  a  cry,  and  it 
was  all  over  ! " 

"  He  is  telling  of  the  Mary  Rose,  sir." 

"  I  guessed  so." 

"All  over:  and  the  cry  of  mun,  and  the  screech  of  mini ! 
Oh,  sir,  up  to  the  very  heavens !  And  the  king  he  screeched 
right  out  like  any  maid,  '  Oh  my  gentlemen,  oh  my  gallant 
men  !'  and  as  she  lay  on  her  beam-ends,  sir,  and  just  a-settliiiLr, 
the  very  last  souls  I  seen  was  that  man's  father,  and  that  man's. 
I  knowed  mun  by  their  armour." 

And  he  pointed  to  Sir  George  Carew  and  Sir  Richard 
Grenvile. 

"  Iss !  Iss !    Drowned  like  rattens.    Drowned  like  rattens  ! " 

"  Now ;  you  mustn't  trouble  his  worship  any  more." 

"Trouble?  Let  him  tell  till  midnight,  I  shall  be  \v«-ll 
pleased,"  said  Amyas,  sitting  down  on  the  bench  by  him. 
"  Drawer !  ale — and  a  parcel  of  tobacco." 

And  Amyas  settled  himself  to  listen,  while  the  old  man 
purred  to  himself — 

"Iss.  They  likes  to  hear  old  Martin.  All  the  captains 
look  upon  old  Martin." 

"Hillo,  Amyas!"  said  Gary,  "who's  your  friend  1  Here's 
a  man  been  telling  me  wonders  about  the  River  Plate.  We 
should  go  thither  for  luck  there  next  time." 

"  River  Plate  ?"  said  old  Martin ;  "  It's  I  knows  about  the 
River  Plate ;  none  so  well  Who'd  ever  been  there,  nor  heard 
of  it  nether,  before  Captain  Will  and  me  went,  and  I  lived  among 
the  savages  a  whole  year;  and  audacious  civil  I  found  'em  if 
they'd  had  but  shirts  to  their  backs ;  and  so  was  the  prince  o* 
mun,  that  Captain  Will  brought  home  to  King  Henry ;  least- 
wise he  died  on  the  voyage ;  but  the  wild  folk  took  it  cruel 
well,  for  you  see,  we  was  always  as  civil  with  them  as  Chris- 
tians, and  if  we  hadn't  been,  I  should  not  have  been  here  now." 


CHAP.  XXX.]          TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS,  543 

"  What  year  was  that  ?" 

"  In  the  fifteen  thirty :  but  I  was  there  afore,  and  learnt 
the  speech  o'  mun ;  and  that's  why  Captain  Will  left  me  to  a 
hostage,  when  he  tuked  their  prince." 

"Before  that?"  said  Gary;  "why,  the  country  was  hardly 
known  before  that." 

The  old  man's  eyes  flashed  up  in  triumph. 

"  Knowed  ?  Iss,  and  you  may  well  say  that !  Look  ye 
here  !  Look  to  mun  !"  and  he  waved  his  hand  round — "There's 
captains  !  and  I'm  the  father  of  'em  all  now,  now  poor  Captain 
Will's  in  gloory;  I,  Martin  Cockrem! .  . .  Iss,  I've  seen  a  change. 
I  mind  when  Tavistock  Abbey  was  so  full  o'  friars,  and  goolden 
idols,  and  sich  noxious  trade,  as  ever  was  a  wheat-rick  of  rats. 
I  mind  the  fight  off  Brest  in  the  French  wars — Oh,  that  was  a 
fight,  surely  ! — when  the  Regent  and  the  French  Carack  were 
burnt  side  by  side,  being  fast  grappled,  you  see,  because  of  Sir 
Thomas  Knivet ;  and  Captain  Will  gave  him  warning  as  he  ran 
a-past  us,  saying,  says  he " 

"  But,"  said  Amyas,  seeing  that  the  old  man  was  wandering 
away,  "what  do  you  mind  about  America?" 

"  America  ?  I  should  think  so  !  But  I  was  a-going  to  tell 
you  of  the  Regent — and  seven  hundred  Englishmen  burnt  and 
drowned  in  her,  and  nine  hundred  French  in  the  Brest  ship, 
besides  what  we  picked  up.  Oh  dear  !  But  about  America." 

"  Yes,  about  America.  How  are  you  the  father  of  all  the 
captains  ? " 

"  How  ?  you  ask  my  young  master  !  Why,  before  the  fifteen 
thirty,  I  was  up  the  Plate  with  Cabot  (and  a  cruel  fractious 
ontrustful  fellow  he  was,  like  all  they  Portingals),  and.  bid  there 
a  year  and  more,  and  up  the  Paraguaio  with  him,  diskivering 
no  end;  whereby,  gentles,  I  was  the  first  Englishman,  I  hold, 
that  ever  sot  a  foot  on  the  New  World,  I  was  !" 

"  Then  here's  your  health,  and  long  life,  sir !"  said  Amyas 
and  Gary. 

"  Long  life  1  Iss,  fegs,  I  reckon,  long  enough  a'ready  ! 
Why,  I  mind  the  beginning  of  it  all,  I  do.  I  mind  when  there 
wasn't  a  master  mariner  to  Plymouth,  that  thought  there  was 
aught  west  of  the  Land's  End  except  herrings.  Why,  they  held 
them,  pure  wratches,  that  if  you  sailed  right  west  away  far 
enough,  you'd  surely  come  to  the  edge,  and  fall  over  cleve.  Iss 
— 'Twas  dark  parts  round  here,  till  Captain  Will  arose;  and 
the  first  of  it  I  mind  was  inside  the  bar  of  San  Lucar,  and  he 
and  I  were  boys  about  a  ten  year  old,  aboord  of  a  Dartmouth 


"'II  HuW  ADMIRAL  JUIIN    II. V\V I.  [.  HAT.  xxx. 

ship,  ami  went  fur  wine  ;  and  there  come  in  over  the  liar  he 
that  was  the  beginning  of  it  all." 

"  Columbus  1" 

"las,  fegs,  he  did,  not  a  pistol-shot  from  us;  and  I  saw 
mini  stand  on  the  poop,  so  plain  as  I  see  you ;  no  great  shakes 
of  a  man  to  look  to  nether ;  there's  a  sight  better  here,  to  plase 
me  ;  and  we  was  disappointed,  we  lads,  for  we  surely  exjM-eted 
to  sec  mun  with  a  goolden  crown  on,  and  a  .-<-,  ptre  to  a's  hand, 
we  did,  and  the  ship  <>'  mun  all  over  like  Solomon's  temple  for 
gloory.  And  I  mind  that  same  year,  too,  seeing  Vaeco  de 
Gama,  as  was  going  out  over  the  bar,  when  he  found  the  Bona 
Speranza,  and  sailed  round  it  to  the  Indies.  Ah,  that  was 
the  making  of  they  rascally  Portingals,  it  was !  .  .  .  And  our 
crew  told  what  they  seen  and  heerd :  but  nobody  minded  sich 
things.  'Twas  dark  parts,  and  Popish,  then ;  and  nobody 
knowed  nothing,  nor  got  no  schooling,  nor  cared  for  nothing, 
but  scrattling  up  and  down  alongshore  like  to  prawns  in  a  pule. 
Iss,  sitting  in  darkness,  we  was,  and  the  shadow  of  death,  till 
the  day-spring  from  on  high  arose,  and  sinned  upon  us  poor 
out-o'-the-way  folk — The  Lord  be  praised !  And  now,  look  to 
mun!"  and  he  waved  his  hand  all  round — "Look  to  mun! 
Look  to  the  works  of  the  Lord !  Look  to  the  captains  !  Oh 
blessed  sight !  And  one's  been  to  the  Brazils,  and  one  to  the 
Indies,  and  the  Spanish  Main,  and  the  North-West,  and  the 
Rooshias,  and  the  Chinas,  and  up  the  Straits,  and  round  the 
Cape,  and  round  the  world  of  God,  too,  bless  His  holy  name ;  and 
I  seed  the  beginning  of  it;  and  I'll  see  the  end  of  it  too,  I  will ! 
I  was  born  into  the  old  times :  but  I'll  see  the  wondrous  works  of 
the  new,  yet,  I  will !  I'll  see  they  bloody  Spaniards  swept  off  the 
seas  before  I  die,  if  my  old  eyes  can  reach  so  far  as  outside  the 
Sound.  I  shall,  I  knows  it.  I  says  my  prayers  for  it  every 
night;  don't  I,  Mary?  You'll  bate  mun,  sure  as  Judgment, 
you'll  bate  mun  !  The  Lord'll  fight  for  ye.  Nothing7!!  stand 
against  ye.  I've  seed  it  all  along — ever  since  I  was  with  young 
master  to  the  Honduras.  They  can't  bide  the  push  of  us ! 
You'll  bate  mun  off  the  face  of  the  seas,  and  be  masters  of 
the  round  world,  and  all  that  therein  is.  And  then,  I'll  just 
turn  my  old  face  to  the  wall,  and  depart  in  peace,  according  to 
His  word. 

"  Deary  me,  now,  while  I've  been  telling  with  you,  here've 
this  little  maid  been  and  ate  up  all  my  sugar !" 

"  I'll  bring  you  some  more,"  said  Amyas ;  whom  the  childish 
bathos  of  the  last  sentence  moved  rather  to  sighs  than  laughter. 


CHAP.  XXX.]          TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  545 

"Will  ye,  then?  There's  a  good  soul,  and  come  and  tell 
with  old  Martin.  He  likes  to  see  the  brave  young  gentlemen, 
a-going  to  and  fro  in  their  ships,  like  Leviathan,  and  taking  of 
their  pastime  therein.  We  had  no  such  ships  to  our  days. 
Ah,  'tis  grand  times,  beautiful  times  surely — and  you'll  bring 
me  a  bit  sugar  1" 

"  You  were  up  the  Plate  with  Cabot  ?"  said  Gary,  after  a 
pause.  "Do  you  mind  the  fair  lady  Miranda,  Sebastian  de 
Hurtado's  wife  V 

"  What !  her  that  was  burnt  by  the  Indians  ?  Mind  her  ? 
Do  you  mind  the  sun  in  heaven  *?  Oh,  the  beauty  !  Oh,  the 
ways  of  her !  Oh,  the  speech  of  her  !  Never"  was,  nor  never 
will  be  !  And  she  to  die  by  they  villains ;  and  all  for  the  good- 
ness of  her !  Mind  her  ?  I  minded  nought  else  when  she  was 
on  deck." 

"  Who  was  she  1"  asked  Amyas  of  Gary. 

"A  Spanish  angel,  Amyas." 

"  Humph  !"  said  Amyas.  "So  much  the  worse  for  her,  to 
be  born  into  a  nation  of  devils." 

"  They'm  not  all  so  bad  as  that,  yer  honour.  Her  husband 
was  a  proper  gallant  gentleman,  and  kind  as  a  maid,  too,  and 
couldn't  abide  that  De  Solis's  murderous  doings." 

"His  wife  must  have  taught  it  him,  then,"  said  Amyas, 
rising.  "  Where  did  you  hear  of  these  black  swans,  Gary  1" 

"I  have  heard  of  them,  and  that's  enough,"  answered  he, 
unwilling  to  stir  sad  recollections. 

"And  little  enough,"  said  Amyas.  "Will,  don't  talk  to 
me.  The  devil  is  not  grown  white  because  he  has  trod  in  a 
lime-heap." 

"  Or  an  angel  black  because  she  came  down  a  chimney," 
said  Gary ;  and  so  the  talk  ended,  or  rather  was  cut  short ;  for 
the  talk  of  all  the  groups  was  interrupted  by  an  explosion  from 
old  John  Hawkins. 

"  Fail  1  Fail  ?  What  a  murrain  do  you  here,  to  talk  of 
failing  1  Who  made  you  a  prophet,  you  scurvy,  hang-in-the- 
wind,  croaking,  white-livered  son  of  a  corby-crow  1" 

"  Heaven  help  us,  Admiral  Hawkins,  who  has  put  fire  to 
your  culverins  in  this  fashion  1"  said  Lord  Howard. 

"  Who  ?  my  Lord  !  Croakers  !  my  Lord  !  Here's  a  fellow 
calls  himself  the  captain  of  a  ship,  and  her  Majesty's  servant, 
and  talks  about  failing,  as  if  he  were  a  Barbican  loose-kirtle 
trying  to  keep  her  apple-squire  ashore !  Blurt  for  him,  sneak- 
up  !  say  I." 

2N 


546  HOW  ADMIRAL  JOHN    HAWKINS  frim-.  xxx. 

"Admiral  Jnlui  Hawkins"  .|iioth  thr  offend. T,  "you  shall 
answer  this  language  with  your  sword." 

"  I'll  answrr  it  with  my  t'niit  :  ami  Imy  mr  a  pair  of  horn-til* 
to  my  shoes,  like  a  wraxliiiLC  man.  Fi^'ht  a  croaker?  Fi^ht  a 
frog,  an  owl  !  I  tivrht  those  that  <laiv  tL'ht,  sir!" 

"Sir,  sir,  moderate  yourself.  I  am  sun-  this  Lrrntlrmaii  will 
show  himself  as  brave  as  any,  when  it  cornea  to  blows  :  but  who 
can  blame  mortal  man  for  trembling  before  so  fearful  a  chain-.- 
as  this  ?" 

"Let  mortal  man  keep  his  tremblings  to  him.-rlt',  th.-n,  my 
Lord,  and  not  be  like  Solomon's  madmen,  casting  abroad  tin-  ami 
death,  and  saying,  it  is  only  in  sport.  There  is  more  than  one 
of  his  kidney,  your  Lordship,  who  have  not  been  ashamed  to 
play  Mother  Shipton  before  their  own  sailors,  and  damp  the 
poor  fellows'  hearts  with  crying  before  they're  hurt,  and  this  is 
one  of  them.  I've  heard  him  at  it  afore,  and  I'll  present  him, 
with  a  vengeance,  though  I'm  no  churchwarden." 

"If  this  is  really  so,  Admiral  Hawkins — 

"  It  is  so,  my  Lord  !  I  heard  only  last  night,  down  in  a 
tavern  below,  such  unbelieving  talk  as  made  me  mad,  my  Lord ; 
and  if  it  had  not  been  after  supper,  and  my  hand  was  not  over- 
steady,  I  would  have  let  out  a  pottle  of  Alicant  from  some  of 
their  hoopings,  and  sent  them  to  Dick  Surgeon,  to  wrap  them 
in  swaddling-clouts,  like  whining  babies  as  they  are.  Marry 
come  up,  what  says  Scripture?  'He  that  is  fearful  and  faint 
hearted  among  you,  let  him  go  and ' — what  ?  son  Dick  there  1 
Thou'rt  pious,  and  read'st  thy  Bible.  What's  that  text?  A 
mortal  fine  one  it  is,  too." 

"  '  He  that  is  fearful  and  faint-hearted  among  you,  let  him 
go  back,' "  quoth  the  Complete  Seaman.  "  Captain  Merry- 
weather,  as  my  father's  command,  as  well  as  his  years,  forbid 
his  answering  your  challenge,  I  shall  repute  it  an  honour  to 
entertain  his  quarrel  myself — place,  time,  and  weapons  being  at 
your  choice." 

"  Well  spoken,  son  Dick  ! — and  like  a  true  courtier,  too  ! 
Ah  !  thou  hast  the  palabras,  and  the  knee,  and  the  cap,  and 
the  quip,  and  the  innuendo,  and  the  true  town  fashion  of  it  all 
— no  old  tarry-breeks  of  a  sea-dog,  like  thy  dad !  My  Lord, 
you'll  let  them  fight  ? " 

"The  Spaniard,  sir;  but  no  one  else.  But,  captains  and 
gentlemen,  consider  well  my  friend  the  Port  Admiral's  advice ; 
and  if  any  man's  heart  misgives  him,  let  him,  for  the  sake  of 
his  country  and  his  queen,  have  so  much  government  of  his 


CHAP.  XXX.]  TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  547 

tongue  to  hide  his  fears  in  his  own  bosom,  and  leave  open 
complaining  to  ribalds  and  women.  For  if  the  sailor  be  not 
cheered  by  his  commander's  cheerfulness,  how  will  the  ignorant 
man  find  comfort  in  himself1?  And  without  faith  and  hope, 
how  can  he  fight  worthily  1 " 

"  There  is  no  croaking  aboard  of  us,  we  will  warrant,"  said 
twenty  voices,  "  and  shall  be  none,  as  long  as  we  command  on 
board  our  own  ships." 

Hawkins,  having  blown  off  his  steam,  went  back  to  Drake 
and  the  bowls. 

"  Fill  my  pipe,  Drawer — that  croaking  fellow's  made  me  let 
it  out,  of  course  !  Spoil-sports  !  The  father  of  all  manner  of 
troubles  on  earth,  be  they  noxious  trade  of  croakers  !  '  Better 
to  meet  a  bear  robbed  of  her  whelps,'  Francis  Drake,  as 
Solomon  saith,  than  a  fule  who  can't  keep  his  mouth  shut. 
What  brought  Mr.  Andrew  Barker  to  his  death  but  croakers  ? 
What  stopped  Fenton's  China  voyage  in  the  '82,  and  lost  your 
nephew  John,  and  my  brother  Will,  glory  and  hard  cash  too, 
but  croakers  1  What  sent  back  my  Lord  Cumberland's  armada 
in  the  '86,  and  that  after  they'd  proved  their  strength,  too,  sixty 
o'  mun  against  six  hundred  Portugals  and  Indians ;  and  yet 
wern't  ashamed  to  turn  round  and  come  home  empty-handed, 
after  all  my  Lord's  expenses  that  he  had  been  at  t  What  but 
these  same  beggarly  croakers,  that  be  only  fit  to  be  turned  into 
yellow-hammers  up  to  Dartymoor,  and  sit  on  a  tor  all  day,  and 
cry  '  Very  little  bit  of  bread,  and  no  chee-e-ese  ! '  Marry,  sneak- 
up  !  say  I  again." 

"  And  what,"  said  Drake,  "  would  have  kept  me,  if  I'd  let 
'em,  from  ever  sailing  round  the  world,  but  these  same  croakers  1 
I  hanged  my  best  friend  for  croaking,  John  Hawkins,  may  God 
forgive  me  if  I  was  wrong,  and  I  threatened  a  week  after  to 
hang  thirty  more;  and  I'd  have  done  it,  too,  if  they  hadn't 
clapped  tompions  into  their  muzzles  pretty  fast." 

"You'm  right,  Frank.  My  old  father  always  told  me — 
and  old  King  Hal  (bless  his  memory !)  would  take  his  counsel 
among  a  thousand  ; — '  And,  my  son,'  says  he  to  me,  '  whatever 
you  do,  never  you  stand  no  croaking ;  but  hang  mun,  son  Jack, 
hang  mun  up  for  an  ensign.  There's  Scripture  for  it,'  says  he 
(he  was  a  mighty  man  to  his  Bible,  after  bloody  Mary's  days, 
leastwise),  '  and  'tis  written,'  says  he,  '  It's  expedient  that  one 
man  die  for  the  crew,  and  that  the  whole  crew  perish  not ;  so 
show  you  no  mercy,  son  Jack,  or  you'll  find  none,  leastwise  in 
they  manner  of  cattle ;  for  if  you  fail,  they  stamps  on  you,  and 


MS  llnW    AhMIKAl.   JOHN    HAWKINS  [,MVI 

if  you  succeeds,  they  takes  the  credit  of  it  to  themselves,  ami 
goes  to  heaven  in  \"iir  shoes.'  Those  were  his  words,  ami  I  \« 
found  iniiii  true.  -Who  com'th  here  now?" 

"  Captain  Fleming,  as  I'm  a  sinner." 

••  Fl. 'ining?  Is  he  tired  of  life,  that  he  com'th  here  to  l».,k 
t'..r  a  halter?  I've  a  warrant  out  against  mun,  fur  rolling  of 
two  Flushingers  on  the  high  seas,  now  this  wry  hu<t  year.  l~ 
the  fellow  mazed  or  drunk,  then  ?  or  has  he  seen  a  ghost  ? 
Look  to  mun  ! " 

"  I  think  so,  truly,"  said  Drake.  "  His  eyes  are  near  out  of 
his  head." 

The  man  was  a  rough-bearded  old  sea-dog,  who  had  just 
burst  in  from  the  tavern  through  the  low  hatch,  ujiscttr 
drawer  with  all  his  glasses,  and  now  came  panting  and  blowing 
straight  up  to  the  High  Admiral, — 

"  .My  Lord,  my  Lord  !  They'm  coming  !  I  saw  them  off  the 
Lizard  last  night !  " 

"Who?  my  good  sir,  who  seem  to  have  left  your  manners 
behind  you." 

"  The  Armada,  your  worship — the  Spaniard  ;  but  as  for  my 
manners,  'tis  no  fault  of  mine,  for  I  never  had  none  to  lea\e 
behind  me." 

i(  If  he  has  not  left  his  manners  behind,"  quoth  Hawkins, 
"  look  out  for  your  purses,  gentlemen  all !  He's  manners 
enough,  and  very  bad  ones  they  be,  when  he  com'th  across  a 
quiet  Flushinger." 

"  If  I  stole  Flushingers'  wines,  I  never  stole  negurs'  souls, 
Jack  Hawkins  ;  so  there's  your  answer.  My  Lord,  hang  me  if 
you  will ;  life's  short  and  death's  easy  'specially  to  seamen  ;  but 
if  I  didn't  see  the  Spanish  fleet  last  sun-down,  coming  along 
half-moon  wise,  and  full  seven  mile  from  wing  to  wing,  within 
a  four  mile  of  me,  I'm -a  sinner." 

"  Sirrah,"  said  Lord  Howard,  "  is  this  no  fetch,  to  cheat  us 
out  of  your  pardon  for  these  piracies  of  yours  ? " 

"You'll  find  out  for  yourself  before  nightfall,  my  Lord  High 
Admiral.  All  Jack  Fleming  says,  is,  that  this  is  a  poor  sort  of 
an  answer  to  a  man  who  has  put  his  own  neck  into  the  halter  for 
the  sake  of  liis  country." 

"  Perhaps  it  is,"  said  Lord  Howard.  "  And  after  all, 
gentlemen,  what  can  this  man  gain  by  a  lie,  which  must  !*• 
discovered  ere  a  day  is  over,  except  a  more  certain  hanging?" 

"Very  true,  your  Lordship,"  said  Hawkins,  mollified. 
"Come  here,  Jack  Fleming — what  wilt  drain,  man?  Hip- 


CHAP.  XXX.]          TESTIFIED  AGAINST  CROAKERS.  549 

pocras  or  Alicant,  Sack  or  John  Barleycorn,  and  a  pledge  to 
thy  repentance  and  amendment  of  life." 

"  Admiral  Hawkins,  Admiral  Hawkins,  this  is  no  time  for 
drinking." 

"Why  not,  then,  my  Lord?  Good  news  should  be  wel- 
comed with  good  wine.  Frank,  send  down  to  the  sexton,  and 
set  the  bells  a-ringing  to  cheer  up  all  honest  hearts.  Why,  my 
Lord,  if  it  were  not  for  the  gravity  of  my  office,  I  could  dance 
a  galliard  for  joy  ! " 

"  Well,  you  may  dance,  Port  Admiral :  but  I  must  go  and 
plan,  but  God  give  to  all  captains  such  a  heart  as  yours  this  day  ! " 

"  And  God  give  all  generals  such  a  head  as  yours  !  Come, 
Frank  Drake,  we'll  play  the  game  out  before  we  move.  It  will 
be  two  good  days  before  we  shall  be  fit  to  tackle  them,  so  an 
odd  half-hour  don't  matter." 

"  I  must  command  the  help  of  your  counsel,  Vice- Admiral," 
said  Lord  Charles,  turning  to  Drake. 

"And  it's  this,  my  good  Lord,"  said  Drake,  looking  up,  as 
he  aimed  his  bowl.  "  They'll  come  soon  enough  for  us  to  show 
them  sport,  and  yet  slow  enough  for  us  to  be  ready ;  so  let  no 
man  hurry  himself.  And  as  example  is  better  than  precept, 
here  goes." 

Lord  Howard  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  departed,  knowing 
two  things ;  first,  that  to  move  Drake  was  to  move  mountains ; 
and  next,  that  when  the  self-taught  hero  did  bestir  himself,  he 
would  do  more  work  in  an  hour  than  any  one  else  in  a  day. 
So  he  departed,  followed  hastily  by  most  of  the  captains ;  and 
Drake  said  in  a  low  voice  to  Hawkins — 

"  Does  he  think  we  are  going  to  knock  about  on  a  lee-shore 
all  the  afternoon  and  run  our  noses  at  night — and  dead  up-wind, 
too — into  the  Dons'  mouths  1  No,  Jack,  my  friend.  Let 
Orlando-Furioso-punctilio-fire-eaters  go  and  get  their  knuckles 
rapped.  The  following  game  is  the  game,  and  not  the  meeting 
one.  The  dog  goes  after  the  sheep,  and  not  afore  them,  lad. 
Let  them  go  by,  and  go  by,  and  stick  to  them  well  to  windward, 
and  pick  up  stragglers,  and  pickings,  too,  Jack — the  prizes, 
Jack!" 

"Trust  my  old  eyes  for  not  being  over -quick  at  seeing 
signals,  if  I  be  hanging  in  the  skirts  of  a  fat-looking  Don. 
We'm  the  eagles,  Drake ;  and  where  the  carcase  is,  is  our  place, 
eh?" 

And  so  the  two  old  sea-dogs  chatted  on,  while  their  com- 
panions dropped  off  one  by  one,  and  only  Amyas  remained. 


550      ADMIKAl.   HAWKINS  AND  THE  CROAKERS.     [CUAV.  xxx. 

"Eh,  Captain  Lrigh,  whore's  my  boy  Dick?" 

"Gone  off  with  his  lordship,  Sir  .Jnlm." 

"On  his  puuetilios  too,  I  suppose,  the  young  slashed-breeks. 
He's  half  a  Don,  that  fellow,  with  his  fine  Hcholarship,  and  his 
line  manners,  and  his  fine  clothes.  He'll  get  a  taking  down  be- 
fore he  dies,  unless  he  mends.  Why  ain't  you  gone  too,  sir?" 

"  I  follow  my  leader,"  said  Ainyas,  filling  his  pipe. 

"  Well  said,  my  big  man,"  quoth  Drake.  "If  I  could  lead 
you  round  the  world,  I  can  lead  you  up  Channel,  can't  11 — Eh? 
my  little  bantam-cock  of  the  Orinoco  ?  Drink,  lad  !  You're 
over-sad  to-day." 

"  Not  a  whit,"  said  Amyas.  "  Only  I  can't  help  wondering 
whether  I  shall  find  him  after  all." 

"  Whom  ?  That  Don  ?  We'll  find  him  for  you,  if  he's  in 
the  fleet.  We'll  squeeze  it  out  of  our  prisoners  somehow.  Eli, 
Hawkins  1  I  thought  all  the  captains  had  promised  to  send  you 
news  if  they  heard  of  him." 

"  Ay,  but  it's  ill  looking  for  a  needle  in  a  haystack.  But  I 
shall  find  him.  I  am  a  coward  to  doubt  it,"  said  Amyas,  set- 
ting his  teeth. 

"  There,  Vice- Admiral,  you're  beaten,  and  that's  the  rubber. 
Pay  up  three  dollars,  old  high-flyer,  and  go  and  earn  more,  like 
an  honest  adventurer." 

"  Well,"  said  Drake,  as  he  pulled  out  his  purse,  "  we'll  walk 
down  now,  and  see  about  these  young  hot-heads.  As  I  live, 
they  are  setting  to  tow  the  ships  out  already !  Breaking  the 
men's  backs  over-night,  to  make  them  fight  the  lustier  in  the 
morning !  Well,  well,  they  haven't  sailed  round  the  world, 
Jack  Hawkins." 

"  Or  had  to  run  home  from  St.  Juan  d'Ulloa  with  half  a 
crew." 

"  Well  if  we  haven't  to  run  out  with  half  crews.  I  saw  a 
sight  of  our  lads  drunk  about  this  morning." 

"  The  more  reason  for  waiting  till  they  be  sober.  Besides, 
if  everybody's  caranting  about  to  once  each  after  his  own  men, 
nobody'll  find  nothing  in  such  a  scrimmage  as  that.  Bye,  bye, 
Uncle  Martin.  We'm  going  to  blow  the  Dons  up  now  in 
earnest." 


U11A1-.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  551 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 

THE  GREAT  AEMADA. 

' '  Britannia  needs  no  bulwarks, 
No  towers  along  the  steep, 
Her  march  is  o'er  the  mountain  wave, 
Her  home  is  on  the  deep. " 

CAMPBELL,  Ye  Mariners  of  England. 

AND  now  began  that  great  sea-fight  which  was  to  determine 
whether  Popery  and  despotism,  or  Protestantism  and  freedom, 
were  the  law  which  God  had  appointed  for  the  half  of  Europe, 
and  the  whole  of  future  America.  It  is  a  twelve  days'  epic, 
worthy,  as  I  said  in  the  beginning  of  this  book,  not  of  dull 
prose,  but  of  the  thunder-roll  of  Homer's  verse :  but  having  to 
tell  it,  I  must  do  my  best,  rather  using,  where  I  can,  the  words 
of  contemporary  authors  than  my  own. 

"  The  Lerd  High  Admirall  of  England,  sending  a  pinnace 
before,  called  the  Defiance,  denounced  war  by  discharging  her 
ordnance ;  and  presently  approaching  within  musquet-shot, 
with  much  thundering  out  of  his  own  ship,  called  the  Arkroyall 
(alias  the  Triumph),  first  set  upon  the  admirall's,  as  he  thought, 
of  the  Spaniards  (but  it  was  Alfonso  de  Leon's  ship).  Soon 
after,  Drake,  Hawkins,  and  Frobisher  played  stoutly  with  their 
ordnance  on  the  hindmost  squadron,  which  was  commanded  by 
Recalde."  The  Spaniards  soon  discover  the  superior  "  nimble- 
ness  of  the  English  ships;"  and  Eecalde's  squadron,  finding 
that  they  are  getting  more  than  they  give,  in  spite  of  his  en- 
deavours, hurry  forward  to  join  the  rest  of  the  fleet.  Medina 
the  Admiral,  finding  his  ships  scattering  fast,  gathers  them  into 
a  half-moon ;  and  the  Armada  tries  to  keep  solemn  way  forward, 
like  a  stately  herd  of  buffaloes,  who  march  on  across  the  prairie, 
disdaining  to  notice  the  wolves  which  snarl  around  their  track. 
But  in  vain.  These  are  no  wolves,  but  cunning  hunters,  swiftly 
horsed,  and  keenly  armed,  and  who  will  "  shamefully  shuffle  " 
(to  use  Drake's  own  expression)  that  vast  herd  from  the  Lizard 
to  Portland,  from  Portland  to  Calais  Roads ;  and  who,  even  in 
this  short  two  hours'  fight,  have  made  many  a  Spaniard  ques- 
tion the  boasted  invincibleness  of  this  Armada. 

One  of  the  four  great  galliasses  is  already  riddled  with  shot, 
to  the  great  disarrangement  of  her   "  pulpits,   chapels,"  and 


.'ML'  II IK  GREAT  ARMADA.  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

friars  therein  assistant.  The  fleet  has  to  close  round  her,  i>r 
Drake  and  Hawkins  will  sink  her ;  in  rH'rctin.i:  which  HI.-UKI-UVIV, 
the  "principal  galleon  of  Seville,"  in  which  are  Pedro  de 
Vftldr/.  and  :i  host  of  bluc-blootled  Dons,  runs  foul  of  her 
in  -i^hbour,  carries  away  lnr  foremast,  and  is,  in  spite  of  Spanish 
chivalry,  left  to  her  fate.  This  does  not  look  like  victory, 
certainly.  But  courage  1  though  Valdez  be  left  1* -hind,  "our 
Lady,"  and  the  saints,  and  the  Bull  Coma  Domini  (dictated  by 
one  whom  I  dare  not  name  here),  are  with  them  still,  and  it  were 
blasphemous  to  doubt.  But  in  the  meanwhile,  if  they  have 
fared  no  better  than  this  against  a  third  of  the  Plymouth  fWt, 
how  will  they  fare  when  those  forty  belated  ships,  which  are 
already  whitening  the  blue  between  them  and  the  Mewstone, 
enter  the  scene  to  play  their  part  1 

So  ends  the  first  day ;  not  an  English  ship,  hardly  a  man, 
is  hurt.  It  has  destroyed  for  ever,  in  English  minds,  the 
prestige  of  boastful  Spain.  It  has  justified  utterly  the  policy 
which  the  good  Lord  Howard  had  adopted  by  Raleigh's  and 
Drake's  advice,  of  keeping  up  a  running  fight,  instead  of 
"  clapping  ships  together  without  consideration,"  in  which  case, 
says  Raleigh,  "  he  had  been  lost,  if  he  had  not  been  better 
advised  than  a  great  many  malignant  fools  were,  who  found 
fault  with  his  demeanour." 

Be  that  as  it  may,  so  ends  the  first  day,  in  which  Amyas 
and  the  other  Bideford  ships  have  been  right  busy  for  two  hours, 
knocking  holes  in  a  huge  galleon,  which  carries  on  her  poop  a 
maiden  with  a  wheel,  and  bears  the  name  of  Sta.  Catharina. 
She  had  a  coat  of  arms  on  the  flag  at  her  sprit,  probably  those 
of  the  commandant  of  soldiers ;  but  they  were  shot  away  early 
in  the  fight,  so  Aymas  cannot  tell  whether  they  were  De  Soto's 
or  not.  Nevertheless,  there  is  plenty  of  time  for  private 
revenge ;  and  Amyas,  called  off  at  last  by  the  Admiral's  signal, 
goes  to  bed  and  sleeps  soundly. 

But  ere  he  has  been  in  his  hammock  an  hour,  he  is 
awakened  by  Gary's  coming  down  to  ask  for  orders. 

"  We  were  to  follow  Drake's  lantern,  Amyas ;  but  where  it 
is,  I  can't  see,  unless  he  has  been  taken  up  aloft  there  among 
the  stars  for  a  new  Drakium  Sidus." 

Amyas  turns  out  grumbk'ng  :  but  no  lantern  is  fc>  !«• 
only  a  sudden  explosion  and  a  great  fire  on  board  some  Spaniard, 
which  is  gradually  got  under,  while  they  have  to  lie-to  the  whole 
niirht  Ion?,  with  nearly  the  whole  fleet. 

The  next  morning  finds  them  off  Torbay  ;  and  Amyas  ia 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  553 

hailed  by  a  pinnace,  bringing  a  letter  from  Drake,  which  (saving 
the  spelling,  which  was  somewhat  arbitrary,  like  most  men's  in 
those  days)  ran  somewhat  thus  : — 

"  DEAR  LAD, 

"  I  have  been  wool-gathering  all  night  after  five  great  hulks, 
which  the  Pixies  transfigured  overnight  into  galleons,  and  this 
morning  again  into  German  merchantmen.  I  let  them  go  with 
my  blessing ;  and  coming  back,  fell  in  (God  be  thanked  !)  with 
Valdez'  great  galleon ;  and  in  it  good  booty,  which  the  Dons  his 
fellows  had  left  behind,  like  faithful  and  valiant  comrades,  and 
the  Lord  Howard  had  let  slip  past  him,  thinking  her  deserted 
by  her  crew.  I  have  sent  to  Dartmouth  a  sight  of  noblemen 
and  gentlemen,  maybe  a  half-hundred ;  and  Valdez  himself,  who 
when  I  sent  my  pinnace  aboard  must  needs  stand  on  his  puncti- 
lios, and  propound  conditions.  I  answered  him,  I  had  no  time 
to  tell  with  him ;  if  he  wduld  needs  die,  then  I  was  the  very 
man  for  him ;  if  he  would  live,  then,  buena  querra.  He 
sends  again,  boasting  that  he  was  Don  Pedro  Valdez,  and  that 
it  stood  not  with  his  honour,  and  that  of  the  Dons  in  his  com- 
pany. I  replied,  that  for  my  part,  I  was  Francis  Drake,  and 
my  matches  burning.  Whereon  he  finds  in  my  name  salve  for 
the  wounds  of  his  own,  and  comes  aboard,  kissing  my  fist,  with 
Spanish  lies  of  holding  himself  fortunate  that  he  had  fallen 
into  the  hands  of  fortunate  Drake,  and  much  more,  which  he 
might  have  kept  to  cool  his  porridge.  But  I  have  much  news 
from  him  (for  he  is  a  leaky  tub) ;  and  among  others,  this,  that 
your  Don  Guzman  is  aboard  of  the  Sta.  Catharina,  commandant 
of  her  soldiery,  and  has  his  arms  flying  at  her  sprit,  beside  Sta. 
Catharina  at  the  poop,  which  is  a  maiden  with  a  wheel,  and  is 
a  lofty  built  ship  of  3  tier  of  ordnance,  from  which  God  pre- 
serve you,  and  send  you  like  luck  with 

"  Your  deare  Friend  and  Admirall, 

F.  DRAKE. 

"  She  sails  in  this  squadron  of  Recalde.  The  Armada  was 
minded  to  smoke  us  out  of  Plymouth ;  and  God's  grace  it  was 
they  tried  not :  but  their  orders  from  home  are  too  strait,  and 
so  the  slaves  fight  like  a  bull  in  a  tether,  no  farther  than  their 
rope,  finding  thus  the  devil  a  hard  master,  as  do  most  in  the 
end.  They  cannot  compass  our  quick  handling  and  tacking, 
and  take  us  for  very  witches.  So  far  so  good,  and  better  to 
come.  You  and  I  know  the  length  of  their  foot  of  old.  Time 


•r>~>  i  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  [OBAP.  xxxi. 

:unl  light  will  kill  any  hare,  and  they  will  find  it  a  long  way 

in -MI  Start  to  Dunkirk." 

"The  Admiral  is  in  a  gracious  humour,   Leigh,  to  have 

vouchsafed  you  BO  long  a  lett< 

"  St.  Catharine !  why,  that  was  the  galleon  we  hammered 

all  yrstcnlay  !"  said  Annas,  stamping  mi  tlir  •  !.  <-k. 

"Of  course  it  was.     Well,  we  shall  find  her  again,  dmibt 

n..t.      That  miming  old  Drake!  how  he  has  contri\..i   t..  lint- 

his  own  pockets,  even  though  he  had  to  keep  the  whole  ilrrt 

waiting  for  him." 

"He  has  given  the  Lord  High  Admiral  tin-  dor,  at   all 
events." 

"Lord  Howard  is  too  high-hearted  to  stop  and  plum  In-, 

Papist  though  he  is,  Amyas." 

Amyas  answered  by  a  growl,  for  he  worshipped  Drake,  and 
was  not  too  just  to  Papists. 

The  fleet  did  not  find  Lord  Howard  till  nightfall ;  he  and 
Lord  Sheffield  had  been  holding  on  steadfastly  the  whole  night 
after  the  Spanish  lanterns,  with  two  ships  only.  At  least  tli.rc 
was  no  doubt  now  of  the  loyalty  of  English  Roman  Catholics, 
and,  indeed,  throughout  the  fight,  the  Howards  showed  (as  if 
to  wipe  out  the  slurs  which  had  been  cast  on  their  loyalty  by 
fanatics)  a  desperate  courage,  which  might  have  thrust  less 
prudent  men  into  destruction,  but  led  them  only  to  victory. 
Soon  a  large  Spaniard  drifts  by,  deserted  and  partly  burnt 
Some  of  the  men  are  for  leaving  their  place  to  board  her;  Init 
Amyas  stoutly  refuses.  He  has  "  come  out  to  fight,  and  not  to 
plunder;  so  let  the  nearest  ship  to  her  have  her  luck  without 
grudging."  They  pass  on,  and  the  men  pull  long  faces  when 
they  see  the  galleon  snapped  up  by  their  next  neighbour,  and 
towed  off  to  Weymouth,  where  she  proves  to  be  the  ship  of 
Miguel  d'Oquenda,  the  Vice- Admiral,  which  they  saw  last  night, 
all  but  blown  up  by  some  desperate  Netherland  gunner,  who, 
being  "  mis-used,"  was  minded  to  pay  off  old  scores  on  his  tyrants. 
And  so  ends  the  second  day ;  while  the  Portland  rises  higher 
and  clearer  every  hour.  The  next  morning  finds  them  off  the 
island.  Will  they  try  Portsmouth,  though  they  have  spared 
Plymouth  1  The  wind  has  shifted  to  the  north,  and  blows  clear 
and  cool  off  the  white-walled  downs  of  Weymouth  Bay.  The 
Spaniards  turn  and  face  the  English.  They  must  mean  to 
stand  off  and  on  until  the  wind  shall  change,  and  then  to  try 
for  the  Needles.  At  least,  they  shall  have  some  work  to  do 
before  they  round  Purbeck  Isle. 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  555 

The  English  go  to  the  westward  again :  but  it  is  only  to 
return  on  the  opposite  tack;  and  now  begin  a  series  of  man- 
oeuvres, each  fleet  trying  to  get  the  wind  of  the  other ;  but  the 
struggle  does  not  last  long,  and  ere  noon  the  English  fleet  have 
slipped  close-hauled  between  the  Arrnada  and  the  land,  and  are 
coming  down  upon  them  right  before  the  wind. 

And  now  begins  a  fight  most  fierce  and  fell.  "  And  fight 
they  did  confusedly,  and  with  variable  fortunes ;  while,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  English  manfully  rescued  the  ships  of  London, 
which  were  hemmed  in  by  the  Spaniards ;  and,  on  the  other 
side,  the  Spaniards  as  stoutly  delivered  Recalde  being  in  danger." 
"  Never  was  heard  such  thundering  of  ordnance  on  both  sides, 
which  notwithstanding  from  the  Spaniards  flew  for  the  most 
part  over  the  English  without  harm.  Only  Cock,  an  English- 
man "  (whom  Prince  claims,  I  hope  rightfully,  as  a  worthy  of 
Devon),  "  died  with  honour  in  the  midst  of  the  enemies  in  a  small 
ship  of  his.  For  the  English  ships,  being  far  the  lesser,  charged 
the  enemy  with  marvellous  agility ;  and  having  discharged  their 
broadsides,  flew  forth  presently  into  the  deep,  and  levelled  their 
shot  directly,  without  missing,  at  those  great  and  unwieldy 
Spanish  ships."  "This  was  the  most  furious  and  bloody 
skirmish  of  all "  (though  ending  only,  it  seems,  in  the  capture 
of  a  great  Venetian  and  some  small  craft),  "  in  which  the  Lord 
Admiral  fighting  amidst  his  enemies'  fleet,  and  seeing  one  of  his 
captains  afar  off  (Fenner  by  name,  he  who  fought  the  seven 
Portugals  at  the  Azores),  cried,  '  0  George,  what  doest  thou  1 
Wilt  thou  now  frustrate  my  hope  and  opinion  conceived  of  thee  1 
Wilt  thou  forsake  me  now  V  With  which  words  he  being  en- 
flamed,  approached,  and  did  the  part  of  a  most  valiant  captain  ;" 
as,  indeed,  did  all  the  rest. 

Night  falls  upon  the  floating  volcano;  and  morning  finds 
them  far  past  Purbeck,  with  the  white  peak  of  Freshwater 
ahead ;  and  pouring  out  past  the  Needles,  ship  after  ship,  to 
join  the  gallant  chase.  For  now  from  all  havens,  in  vessels 
fitted  out  at  their  own  expense,  flock  the  chivalry  of  England ; 
the  Lords  Oxford,  Northumberland,  and  Cumberland,  Pallavicin, 
Brooke,  Carew,  Raleigh,  and  Blunt,  and  many  another  honour- 
able name,  "as  to  a  set  field,  where  immortal  fame  and  honour 
was  to  be  attained."  Spain  has  staked  her  chivalry  in  that 
mighty  cast ;  not  a  noble  house  of  Arragon  or  Castile  but  has 
lent  a  brother  or  a  son — and  shall  mourn  the  loss  of  one  :  and 
England's  gentlemen  will  measure  their  strength  once  for  all 
against  the  Cavaliers  of  Spain.  Lord  Howard  has  sent  forward 


•r> •'• » >  III  1 :  < :  K  KAT  ARMADA.  [OHAP.  \ 

light  craft  into  Portsmouth  for  ammunition  :  but  they  will 
scarce  return  to-night,  for  the  wind  falls  dead,  und  all  the 
•  •veiling  the  two  fleets  drift  helpless  with  .the  tide,  and  shout 
idle  defiance  at  each  other  with  trmn|>ct,  fit'r,  :uid  dnun. 

Tin*  sun  goes  down  upon  a  glassy  sea,  and  rim*  on  a  glassy 
sea  again.  But  what  day  is  this?  Tin-  twenty  tit'tl:. 
James's-day,  sacred  to  the  patron  saint  of  Spain.  Shall  nothing 
be  attempted  in  his  honour  by  those  whose  forefathers  have  so 
often  seen  him  with  their  bodily  eyes,  charging  in  their  van 
upon  his  snow-white  steed,  and  scattering  Payn  in  is  with  celestial 
lance1?  He  might  have  sent  them,  certainly,  a  favouring  In 
jtcrhaps,  he  only  means  to  try  their  faith;  at  least  the  galleys 
shall  attack ;  and  in  their  van  three  of  the  great  galliasses  (the 
fourth  lies  half-crippled  among  the  fleet)  thrash  the  sea  to  foam 
with  three  hundred  oars  apiece;  and  see,  not  St.  James  leading 
them  to  victory,  but  Lord  Howard's  Triumph,  his  brother's 
Lion,  Southwell's  Elizabeth  Jonas,  Lord  Sheffield's  Bear, 
Barker's  Victory,  and  George  Tenner's  Leicester,  towed  stoutly 
out,  to  meet  them  with  such  salvoes  of  chain-shot,  smashing 
oars,  and  cutting  rigging,  that  had  not  the  wind  sprung  up 
again  toward  noon,  and  the  Spanish  fleet  come  up  to  rescue 
them,  they  had  shared  the  fate  of  Valdez  and  the  Biscayan. 
And  now  the  fight  becomes  general.  Frobisher  beats  down  the 
Spanish  Admiral's  mainmast;  and,  attacked  himself  by  Mexia 
and  Recalde,  is  rescued  by  Lord  Howard ;  who,  himself  en- 
dangered in  his  turn,  is  rescued  in  his  turn  ;  "  while  after  that 
day"  (so  sickened  were  they  of  the  English  gunnery),  "no 
galliasse  would  adventure  to  fight." 

And  so,  with  variable  fortune,  the  fight  thunders  on  the 
livelong  afternoon,  beneath  the  virgin  cliffs  of  Freshwater  ; 
while  myriad  sea-fowl  rise  screaming  up  from  every  ledge,  and 
spot  with  their  black  wings  the  snow-white  wall  of  chalk  ;  and 
the  lone  shepherd  hurries  down  the  slopes  above  to  peer  over 
the  dizzy  edge,  and  forgets  the  wheatear  fluttering  in  his  snare, 
while  he  gazes  trembling  upon  glimpses  of  tall  masts  and  gor- 
geous flags,  piercing  at  times  the  league-broad  veil  of  sulphur- 
smoke  which  welters  far  below. 

So  fares  St.  James's-day,  as  Baal's  did  on  Carmel  in  old 
time,  "Either  he  is  talking,  or  he  is  pursuing,  or  he  is  on  a 
journey ;  or  peradventure  he  sleej>eth,  and  must  be  awaked." 
At  least,  the  only  fire  by  which  he  has  answered  his  votaries, 
has  been  that  of  English  cannon  :  and  the  Armada,  "gathering 
itself  into  a  roundel,"  will  fight  no  more,  but  make  the  best  of 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  557 

its  way  to  Calais,  where  perhaps  the  Guises'  faction  may  have 
a  French  force  ready  to  assist  them,  and  then  to  Dunkirk,  to 
join  with  Parma  and  the  great  flotilla  of  the  Netherlands. 

So  on,  before  "a  fair  Etesian  gale,"  which  follows  clear  and 
bright  out  of  the  south-south-west,  glide  forward  the  two  great 
fleets,  past  Brighton  Cliffs  and  Beachy  Head,  Hastings  and 
Dungeness.  Is  it  a  battle  or  a  triumph  ?  For  by  sea  Lord 
Howard,  instead  of  fighting  is  rewarding ;  and  after  Lord 
Thomas  Howard,  Lord  Sheffield,  Townsend,  and  Frobisher  have 
received  at  his  hands  that  knighthood,  which  was  then  more 
honourable  than  a  peerage,  old  Admiral  Hawkins  kneels  and 
rises  up  Sir  John,  and  shaking  his  shoulders  after  the  accolade, 
observes  to  the  representative  of  majesty,  that  his  "old  woman 
will  hardly  know  herself  again,  when  folks  call  her  My  Lady." 

And  meanwhile  the  cliffs  are  lined  with  pikemen  and  mus- 
keteers, and  by  every  countryman  and  groom  who  can  bear 
arms,  led  by  their  squires  and  sheriffs,  marching  eastward  as 
fast  as  their  weapons  let  them,  towards  the  Dover  shore.  And 
not  with  them  alone.  From  many  a  mile  inland  come  down 
women  and  children,  and  aged  folk  in  waggons,  to  join  their 
feeble  shouts,  and  prayers  which  are  not  feeble,  to  that  great 
cry  of  mingled  faith  and  fear  which  ascends  to  the  throne  of 
God  from  the  spectators  of  Britain's  Salamis. 

Let  them  pray  on.  The  danger  is  not  over  yet,  though 
Lord  Howard  has  had  news  from  Newhaven  that  the  Guises 
will  not  stir  against  England,  and  Seymour  and  Winter  have 
left  their  post  of  observation  on  the  Flemish  shores,  to  make 
up  the  number  of  the  fleet  to  an  hundred  and  forty  sail — larger, 
slightly,  than  that  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  but  of  not  more  than 
half  the  tonnage,  or  one  third  the  number  of  men.  The 
Spaniards  are  dispirited  and  battered,  but  unbroken  still ;  and 
as  they  slide  to  their  anchorage  in  Calais  Roads  on  the  Saturday 
evening  of  that  most  memorable  week,  all  prudent  men  know 
well  that  England's  hour  is  come,  and  that  the  bells  which  will 
call  all  Christendom  to  church  upon  the  morrow  morn,  will  be 
either  the  death-knell  or  the  triumphal  peal  of  the  Reformed 
faith  throughout  the  world. 

A  solemn  day  that  Sabbath  must  have  been  in  country  and 
in  town.  And  many  a  light-hearted  coward,  doubtless,  who 
had  scoffed  (as  many  did)  at  the  notion  of  the  Armada's  coming, 
because  he  dare  not  face  the  thought,  gave  himself  up  to  abject 
fear,  "as  he  now  plainly  saw  and  heard  that  of  which  before 
he  would  not  be  persuaded."  And  many  a  brave  man,  too,  as 


.r>.r.S  THE  OREAT  ARMADA.  [CHAP.  xxxi. 

he  kuelt  beside  his  wife  and  daughters,  felt  his  heart  sink  to 
the  very  pavement,  at  the  tlmu^ht  of  what  those  beloved  ones 
might  be  finlurin.u'  :i  few  short  days  henee,  from  a  profligate 
and  fanatical  soldiery,  or  from  the  more  deliberate  fiendishnem 
of  the  Im[uisitii>n.  The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the 
fires  of  Smithfield,  the  immolation  of  the  Moors,  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  West  Indians,  the  fantastic  horrors  of  the  I'i.d 
montese  persecution,  which  make  unreadable  the  too  truthful 
pages  of  Morland, — these  were  the  spectres,  which,  not  as  now, 
dim  and  distant  through  the  mist  of  centuries,  but  recent, 
bleeding  from  still  gaping  wounds,  flitted  before  the  eyes  of 
every  Englishman,  and  filled  his  brain  and  heart  with  fire. 

He  knew  full  well  the  fate  in  store  for  him  and  his.  One 
false  step,  and  the  unspeakable  doom  which,  not  two  genera- 
tions afterwards,  befell  the  Lutherans  of  Magdeburg,  would 
have  befallen  every  town  from  London  to  Carlisle.  All  knew 
the  hazard,  as  they  prayed  that  day,  and  many  a  day  before 
and  after,  throughout  England  and  the  Netherlands.  And 
none  knew  it  better  than  She  who  was  the  guiding  spirit  of 
that  devoted  land,  and  the  especial  mark  of  the  invaders'  fury  : 
and  who,  by  some  Divine  inspiration  (as  men  then  not  unwisely 
held),  devised  herself  the  daring  stroke  which  was  to  anticipate 
the  coming  blow. 

But  where  is  Amyas  Leigh  all  this  while  1  Day  after  day 
he  has  been  seeking  the  Sta.  Catharina  in  the  thickest  of  the 
press,  and  cannot  come  at  her,  cannot  even  hear  of  her  :  one 
moment  he  dreads  that  she  has  sunk  by  night,  and  balked  him 
of  his  prey ;  the  next,  that  she  has  repaired  her  damages,  and 
will  escape  him  after  all.  He  is  moody,  discontented,  restless, 
even  (for  the  first  time  in  his  life)  peevish  with  his  men.  He 
can  talk  of  nothing  but  Don  Guzman ;  he  can  find  no  better 
employment,  at  every  spare  moment,  than  taking  his  sword  out 
of  the  sheath,  and  handling  it,  fondling  it,  talking  to  it  even, 
bidding  it  not  to  fail  him  in  the  day  of  vengeance.  At  last,  he 
has  sent  to  Squire,  the  armourer,  for  a  whetstone,  and,  half- 
ashamed  of  his  own  folly,  whets  and  polishes  it  in  bye-corners, 
muttering  to  himself.  That  one  fixed  thought  of  selfish  ven- 
geance has  possessed  his  whole  mind;  he  forgets  England's 
present  need,  her  past  triumph,  his  own  safety,  everything  but 
his  brother's  blood.  And  yet  this  is  the  day  for  which  he  has 
been  longing  ever  since  he  brought  home  that  magic  horn  as  a 
fifteen  years  boy ;  the  day  when  he  should  find  himself  face  to 
face  with  an  invader,  and  that  invader  Antichrist  himself.  He 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  559 

has  believed  for  years  with  Drake,  Hawkins,  Grenvile,  and 
Raleigh,  that  he  was  called  and  sent  into  the  world  only  to 
fight  the  Spaniard :  and  he  is  fighting  him  now,  in  such  a  cause, 
for  such  a  stake,  within  such  battle-lists,  as  he  will  never  see 
again :  and  yet  he  is  not  content ;  and  while  throughout  that 
gallant  fleet,  whole  crews  are  receiving  the  Communion  side  by 
side,  and  rising  with  cheerful  faces  to  shake  hands,  and  to 
rejoice  that  they  are  sharers  in  Britain's  Salamis,  Amyas  turns 
away  from  the  holy  elements. 

"  I  cannot  communicate,  Sir  John.  Charity  with  all  men  ? 
I  hate,  if  ever  man  hated  on  earth." 

"You  hate  the  Lord's  foes  only,  Captain  Leigh." 

"  No,  Jack,  I  hate  my  own  as  well." 

"But  no  one  in  the  fleet,  sir?" 

"  Don't  try  to  put  me  off  with  the  same  Jesuit's  quibble 
which  that  false  knave  Parson  Fletcher  invented  for  one  of 
Doughty's  men,  to  drug  his  conscience  withal  when  he  was 
plotting  against  his  own  admiral.  No,  Jack,  I  hate  one  of 
whom  you  know ;  and  somehow  that  hatred  of  him  keeps  me 
from  loving  any  human  being.  I  am  in  love  and  charity  with 
no  man,  Sir  John  Brimblecombe — not  even  with  you  !  Go  your 
ways  in  God's  name,  sir  !  and  leave  me  and  the  devil  alone 
together,  or  you'll  find  my  words  are  true." 

Jack  departed  with  a  sigh,  and  while  the  crew  were  receiv- 
ing the  Communion  on  deck,  Amyas  sate  below  in  the  cabin 
sharpening  his  sword,  and  after  it,  called  for  a  boat  and  went 
on  board  Drake's  ship  to  ask  news  of  the  Sta.  Catharina,  and 
listened  scowling  to  the  loud  chants  and  tinkling  bells,  which 
came  across  the  water  from  the  Spanish  fleet.  At  last,  Drake 
was  summoned  by  the  Lord  Admiral,  and  returned  with  a 
secret  commission,  which  ought  to  bear  fruit  that  night ;  and 
Amyas,  who  had  gone  with  him,  helped  him  till  nightfall,  and 
then  returned  to  his  own  ship  as  Sir  Amyas  Leigh,  Knight, 
to  the  joy  and  glory  of  every  soul  on  board,  except  his  moody 
self. 

So  there,  the  livelong  summer  Sabbath-day,  before  the  little 
high -walled  town  and  the  long  range  of  yellow  sandhills,  lie 
those  two  mighty  armaments,  scowling  at  each  other,  hardly  out 
of  gunshot.  Messenger  after  messenger  is  hurrying  towards 
Bruges  to  the  Duke  of  Parma,  for  light  craft  which  can  follow 
these  nimble  English  somewhat  better  than  their  own  floating 
castles ;  and,  above  all,  entreating  him  to  put  to  sea  at  once 
with  all  his  force.  The  duke  is  not  with  his  forces  at  Dunkirk, 


fiGO  IIIK  GREAT  ARMADA.  [, H.M..  x\\i. 

but  on  the  future  field  of  Waterloo,  paying  his  devotions  to  St. 
Mary  of  Halle  in  Hainault,  in  order  to  make  all  sure  in  his 
Pantheon,  ami  already  sees  in  visions  of  th<>  night  that  gentle- 
souled  and  pun- -lipped  .saint.  Cardinal  Allen,  placing  the  cn.wn 
of  England  on  his  head.  He  returns  for  answn- ;  first,  that  his 
virtual  is  not  ready;  next,  that  his  Dutch  sailors,  who  have 
U-rn  kept  at  their  post  for  many  a  week  at  the  sword's  point, 
have  run  away  like  water ;  and  thirdly,  that  over  and  above  all, 
he  cannot  come,  so  "strangely  provided  of  great  ordnance  and 
musketeers"  are  those  five -and -thirty  Dutch  ships,  in  which 
round-sterned  and  stubborn-hearted  heretics  watch,  like  terriers 
at  a  rat's  hole,  the  entrance  of  Nieuwport  and  Dunkirk.  Having 
ensured  the  private  patronage  of  St.  Mary  of  Halle,  he  will 
return  to-morrow  to  make  experience  of  its  effects :  but  only 
hear  across  the  flats  of  Dixmude  the  thunder  of  the  fleets,  and 
at  Dunkirk  the  open  curses  of  his  officers.  For  while  he  has 
been  praying  and  nothing  more,  the  English  have  been  praying, 
and  something  more ;  and  all  that  is  left  for  the  Prince  of  Parma 
is,  to  hang  a  few  purveyors,  as  pea^e  offerings  to  his  sulking 
army,  and  then  "  chafe,"  as  Drake  says  of  him,  "  like  a  bear 
robbed  of  her  whelps." 

For  Lord  Henry  Seymour  has  brought  Lord  Howard  a  letter 
of  command  from  Elizabeth's  self;  and  Drake  has  been  carrying 
it  out  so  busily  all  that  Sunday  long,  that  by  two  o'clock  on 
the  Monday  morning,  eight  fire-ships  "besmeared  with  wild- 
fire, brimstone,  pitch,  and  resin,  and  all  their  ordnance  charged 
with  bullets  and  with  stones,"  are  stealing  down  the  wind  straight 
for  the  Spanish  fleet,  guided  by  two  valiant  men  of  Devon, 
Young  and  Prowse.  (Let  their  names  live  long  in  the  land !) 
The  ships  are  fired,  the  men  of  Devon  steal  back,  and  in  a 
moment  more,  the  heaven  is  red  with  glare  from  Dover  Cliffs  to 
Gravelines  Tower;  and  weary-hearted  Belgian  boors  far  away 
inland,  plundered  and  dragooned  for  many  a  hideous  year,  leap 
from  their  beds,  and  fancy  (and  not  so  far  wrongly  either)  that 
the  day  of  judgment  is  come  at  last,  to  end  their  woes,  and 
hurl  down  vengeance  on  their  tyrants. 

And  then  breaks  forth  one  of  those  disgraceful  panics,  which 
so  often  follow  overweening  presumption;  and  shrieks,  oaths, 
prayers,  and  reproaches,  make  night  hideous.  There  are  those 
too  on  board  who  recollect  well  enough  JenebelU's  fire-ships  at 
Antwerp  three  years  before,  and  the  wreck  which  they  made  of 
Parma's  bridge  across  the  Scheldt.  If  these  should  be  like 
them  !  And  cutting  all  cables,  hoisting  any  sails,  the  Invin- 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  561 

cible  Armada  goes  lumbering  wildly  out  to  sea,  every  ship  foul 
of  her  neighbour. 

The  largest  of  the  four  galliasses  loses  her  rudder,  and  drifts 
helpless  to  and  fro,  hindering  and  confusing.  The  duke,  having 
(so  the  Spaniards  say)  weighed  his  anchor  deliberately  instead 
of  leaving  it  behind  him,  runs  in  again  after  awhile,  and  fires  a 
signal  for  return  :  but  his  truant  sheep  are  deaf  to  the  shepherd's 
pipe,  and  swearing  and  praying  by  turns,  he  runs  up  Channel 
towards  Gravelines  picking  up  stragglers  on  his  way,  who  are 
struggling  as  they  best  can  among  the  flats  and  shallows  :  but 
Drake  and  Fenner  have  arrived  as  soon  as  he.  When  Monday's 
sun  rises  on  the  quaint  old  castle  and  muddy  dykes  of  Grave- 
lines  town,  the  thunder  of  the  cannon  recommences,  and  is  not 
hushed  till  night.  Drake  can  hang  coolly  enough  in  the  rear  to 
plunder  when  he  thinks  fit ;  but  when  the  battle  needs  it,  none 
can  fight  more  fiercely,  among  the  foremost ;  and  there  is  need 
now,  if  ever.  That  Armada  must  never  be  allowed  to  re-form. 
If  it  does,  its  left  wing  may  yet  keep  the  English  at  bay,  while 
its  right  drives  off  the  blockading  Hollanders  from  Dunkirk 
port,  and  sets  Parma  and  his  flotilla  free  to  join  them,  and  to 
sail  in  doubled  strength  across  to  the  mouth  of  Thames. 

So  Drake  has  weighed  anchor,  and  away  up  Channel  with 
all  his  squadron,  the  moment  that  he  saw  the  Spanish  fleet 
come  up ;  and  with  him  Fenner  burning  to  redeem  the  honour 
which,  indeed,  he  had  never  lost ;  and  ere  Fenton,  Beeston, 
Crosse,  Ryman,  and  Lord  Southwell  can  join  them,  the  Devon 
ships  have  been  worrying  the  Spaniards  for  two  full  hours  into 
confusion  worse  confounded. 

But  what  is  that  heavy  firing  behind  them  1  Alas  for  the 
great  galliasse  !  She  lies,  like  a  huge  stranded  whale,  upon  the 
sands  where  now  stands  Calais  pier ;  and  Amyas  Preston,  the 
future  hero  of  La  Guayra,  is  pounding  her  into  submission, 
while  a  fleet  of  hoys  and  drumblers  look  on  and  help,  as  jackals 
might  the  lion. 

Soon,  on  the  south-west  horizon,  loom  up  larger  and  larger 
two  mighty  ships,  and  behind  them  sail  on  sail.  As  they  near 
a  shout  greets  the  Triumph  and  the  Bear ;  and  on  and  in  the 
Lord  High  Admiral  glides  stately  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight. 

True,  we  have  still  but  some  three-and-twenty  ships  which 
can  cope  at  all  with  some  ninety  of  the  Spaniards  :  but  we  have 
dash,  and  daring,  and  the  inspiration  of  utter  need.  Now,  or 
never,  must  the  mighty  struggle  be  ended.  We  worried  them 
off  Portland ;  we  must  rend  them  in  pieces  now ;  and  in  rushes 

2o 


:>r,l>  Till:  (.KKAT  ARMADA.  [.  IIAI-.  XXM. 


after  ship,  to  smash  her  broadsides  through  and  through 
the  wooden  castles,  "sometimes  nut  a  pike's  length  asun<l<  i. 
Mini  then  out  again  to  re-load,  and  give  place  meanwhile  to  an- 
other. The  smaller  are  fighting  with  all  sails  set;  the  few 
larger,  who,  once  in,  are  careless  about  coming  out  again,  fiu'lit 
with  topsails  loose,  and  their  main  and  foreyards  close  down  on 
deck,  to  prevent  being  boarded.  The  duke,  Oquenda,  and 
Recalde,  having  with  much  ado  got  clear  of  the  shallows,  bear 
the  brunt  of  the  fight  to  seaward  ;  but  in  vain.  The  day  goes 
against  them  more  and  more,  as  it  runs  on.  Seymour  and 
Winter  have  battered  the  great  San  Philip  into  a  wreck  ;  In  r 
masts  are  gone  by  the  board  ;  Pimentelli  in  the  San  Matthew 
comes  up  to  take  the  mastiffs  off  the  fainting  bull,  and  finds 
them/fasten  on  him  instead  ;  but  the  Evangelist,  though  smalli-r, 
is  stouter  than  the  Deacon,  and  of  all  the  shot  poured  into  him, 
not  twenty  "  lackt  him  thorough."  His  masts  are  tottering  ; 
but  sink  or  strike  he  will  not. 

"  Go  ahead,  and  pound  his  tough  hide,  Leigh,"  roars  Drake 
off  the  poop  of  his  ship,  while  he  hammers  away  at  one  of  the 
great  galliasses.  "  What  right  has  he  to  keep  us  all  waiting  1  " 

Amyas  slips  in  as  best  he  can  between  Drake  and  Winter  ; 
as  he  passes  he  shouts  to  his  ancient  enemy,  — 

"  We  are  with  you,  sir  ;  all  friends  to-day  !  "  and  slipping 
round  Winter's  bows,  he  pours  his  broadside  into  those  of  the 
San  Matthew,  and  then  glides  on  to  re-load  ;  but  not  to  return. 
For  not  a  pistol  shot  to  leeward,  worried  by  three  or  four  small 
craft,  lies  an  immense  galleon  ;  and  on  her  poop  —  can  he  believe 
his  eyes  for  joy  1  —  the  maiden  and  the  wheel  which  he  has  sought 
so  long  ! 

"  There  he  is  !  "  shouts  Amyas,  springing  to  the  starboard 
side  of  the  ship.  The  men,  too,  have  already  caught  sight  of 
that  hated  sign  ;  a  cheer  of  fury  bursts  from  every  throat. 

"  Steady,  men  !  "  says  Amyas  in  a  suppressed  voice.  "  Not 
a  shot  !  Re-load,  and  be  ready  ;  I  must  speak  with  him  first  ;  " 
and  silent  as  the  grave,  amid  the  infernal  din,  the  Vengeance 
glides  up  to  the  Spaniard's  quarter. 

"  Don  Guzman  Maria  Magdalena  Sotomayor  de  Soto  !  " 
shouts  Amyas  from  the  mizzen  rigging,  loud  and  clear  amid  the 
roar. 

He  has  not  called  in  vain.  Fearless  and  graceful  as  ever, 
the  tall,  mail-clad  figure  of  his  foe  leaps  up  upon  the  )  *><>]>- 
railing,  twenty  feet  above  Amyas's  head,  and  shouts  through  his 
vizor.  — 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  563 

"  At  your  service,  sir  !  whosoever  you  may  be." 

A  dozen  muskets  and  arrows  are  levelled  at  him ;  but 
Amyas  frowns  them  down.  "No  man  strikes  him  but  I. 
Spare  him,  if  you  kill  every  other  soul  on  board.  Don  Guzman  ! 
I  am  Captain  Sir  Amyas  Leigh ;  I  proclaim  you  a  traitor  and 
a  ravisher,  and  challenge  you  once  more  to  single  combat,  when 
and  where  you  will." 

"  You  are  welcome  to  come  on  board  me,  sir,"  answers  the 
Spaniard  in  a  clear,  quiet  tone  ;  "  bringing  with  you  this 
answer,  that  you  lie  in  your  throat ; "  and  lingering  a  moment 
out  of  bravado,  to  arrange  his  scarf,  he  steps  slowly  down  again 
behind  the  bulwarks. 

"  Coward  !  "  shouts  Amyas  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 

The  Spaniard  re-appears  instantly.  "Why  that  name, 
Senor,  of  all  others  ? "  asks  he  in  a  cool,  stern  voice. 

"  Because  we  call  men  cowards  in  England,  who  leave  their 
wives  to  be  burnt  alive  by  priests." 

The  moment  the  words  had  passed  Amyas's  lips,  he  felt  that 
they  were  cruel  and  unjust.  But  it  was  too  late  to  recall  them. 
The  Spaniard  started,  clutched  his  sword-hilt,  and  then  hissed 
back  through  his  closed  vizor, — 

"  For  that  word,  sirrah,  you  hang  at  my  yard-arm,  if  Saint 
Mary  gives  me  grace." 

"See  that  your  halter  be  a  silken  one,  then,"  laughed 
Amyas,  "for  I  am  just  dubbed  knight."  And  he  stepped  down 
as  a  storm  of  bullets  rang  through  the  rigging  round  his  head ; 
the  Spaniards  are  not  as  punctilious  as  he. 

"  Fire  ! "  His  ordnance  crash  through  the  stern-works  of 
the  Spaniard :  and  then  he  sails  onward,  while  her  balls  go 
humming  harmlessly  through  his  rigging. 

Half-an-hour  has  passed  of  wild  noise  and  fury ;  three  times 
has  the  Vengeance,  as  a  dolphin  might,  sailed  clean  round  and 
round  the  Sta.  Catharina,  pouring  in  broadside  after  broadside, 
till  the  guns  are  leaping  to  the  deck-beams  with  their  own  heat, 
and  the  Spaniard's  sides  are  slit  and  spotted  in  a  hundred 
places.  And  yet,  so  high  has  been  his  fire  in  return,  and  so 
strong  the  deck  defences  of  the  Vengeance,  that  a  few  spars 
broken,  and  two  or  three  men  wounded  by  musketry,  are  all  her 
loss.  But  still  the  Spaniard  endures,  magnificent  as  ever ;  it  is 
the  battle  of  the  thresher  and  the  whale ;  the  end  is  certain, 
but  the  work  is  long. 

"  Can  I  help  you,  Captain  Leigh  V  asked  Lord  Henry  Sey- 
mour, as  he  passes  within  oar's  length  of  him,  to  attack  a  ship 


">'"•!  TIIK  GREAT  ARMADA.  [<-HAP.   XXXI. 

a-hewl.  "The  San  Matthew  h:us  had  his  dinner,  and  is  gone 
on  to  Medina  to  ask  fur  a  digestive  to  it." 

"I  thank  your  Lordship  :  l>ut  this  is  my  private  quarrel,  of 
which  I  Kjx»ke.  But  if  your  Lordship  could  lend  me  powder 

"  Would  that  I  could  !  But  BO,  I  fear,  says  every  other 
gentleman  in  the  fleet." 

A  putf  of  wind  clears  away  the  sulphureous  veil  for  a  mo- 
ment ;  the  sea  is  clear  of  ships  towards  the  land  ;  the  Spanish 
fleet  are  moving  again  tip  Channel,  Medina  bringing  up  the  rear ; 
only  some  two  miles  to  their  right  hand,  the  vast  hull  of  the 
San  Philip  is  drifting  up  the  shore  with  the  tide,  and  somewhat 
nearer  the  San  Matthew  is  hard  at  work  at  her  pumps.  They 
can  see  the  white  stream  of  water  pouring  down  her  side. 

"  Go  in,  my  Lord,  and  have  the  pair,"  shouts  Amyas. 

"  No,  sir !  Forward  is  a  Seymour's  cry.  We  will  leave 
them  to  pay  the  Flushingers'  expenses."  And  on  went  Lord 
1 1  run,  and,  on  shore  went  the  San  Philip  at  Ostend,  to  be 
plundered  by  the  Flushingers ;  while  the  San  Matthew,  whose 
captain,  "  on  a  hault  courage,"  had  refused  to  save  himself  and 
his  gentlemen  on  board  Medina's  ship,  went  blundering  miser- 
ably into  the  hungry  mouths  of  Captain  Peter  Vanderduess  and 
four  other  valiant  Dutchmen,  who,  like  prudent  men  of  Holland, 
contrived  to  keep  the  galleon  afloat  till  they  had  emptied  her, 
and  then  "hung  up  her  banner  in  the  great  church  <>f  Lc\dcn, 
being  of  such  a  length,  that  being  fastened  to  the  roof,  it  reached 
unto  the  very  ground." 

But  in  the  mean  while,  long  ere  the  sun  had  set,  comes  down 
the  darkness  of  the  thunder-storm,  attracted,  as  to  a  volcano's 
mouth,  to  that  vast  mass  of  sulphur-smoke  which  cloaks  the  sea 
for  many  a  mile  ;  and  heaven's  artillery  above  makes  answer  to 
man's  below.  But  still,  through  smoke  and  rain,  Amyas  clings 
to  his  prey.  She  too  has  seen  the  northward  movement  of  the 
Spanish  fleet,  and  sets  her  topsails ;  Amyas  calls  to  the  men  to 
fire  high,  and  cripple  her  rigging :  but  in  vain  :  for  three  or 
four  belated  galleys,  having  forced  their  way  at  last  over  the 
shallows,  come  flashing  and  sputtering  up  to  the  combatants, 
and  take  his  fire  off  the  galleon.  Amyas  grinds  his  teeth,  and 
would  fain  hustle  into  the  thick  of  the  press  once  more,  in  spite 
of  the  galley's  beaks. 

"  Most  heroical  captain,"  says  Gary,  pulling  a  long  face ; 
"  if  we  do,  we  are  stove  and  sunk  in  five  minutes ;  not  to  men- 
tion that  Yeo  says  he  has  not  twenty  rounds  of  great  cartridge 
lea" 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  565 

So,  surely  and  silent,  the  Vengeance  sheers  off,  but  keeps  as 
near  as  she  can  to  the  little  squadron,  all  through  the  night  of 
rain  and  thunder  which  follows.  Next  morning  the  sun  rises  on 
a  clear  sky,  with  a  strong  west-north-west  breeze,  and  all  hearts 
are  asking  what  the  day  will  bring  forth. 

They  are  long  past  Dunkirk  now;  the  German  Ocean  is 
opening  before  them.  The  Spaniards,  sorely  battered,  and 
lessened  in  numbers,  have,  during  the  night,  regained  some  sort 
of  order.  The  English  hang  on  their  skirts  a  mile  or  two  behind. 
They  have  no  ammunition,  and  must  wait  for  more.  To  Amyas's 
great  disgust,  the  Sta.  Catharina  has  rejoined  her  fellows  during 
the  night. 

"  Never  mind,"  says  Gary ;  "  she  can  neither  dive  nor  fly, 
and  as  long  as  she  is  above  water,  we — What  is  the  Admiral 
about  V 

He  is  signalling  Lord  Henry  Seymour  and  his  squadron. 
Soon  they  tack,  and  come  down  the  wind  for  the  coast  of 
Flanders.  Parma  must  be  blockaded  still ;  and  the  Hollanders 
are  likely  to  be  too  busy  with  their  plunder  to  do  it  effectually. 
Suddenly  there  is  a  stir  in  the  Spanish  fleet.  Medina  and  the 
rearmost  ships  turn  upon  the  English.  What  can  it  mean  1 
Will  they  offer  battle  once  more  ?  If  so,  it  were  best  to  get 
out  of  their  way,  for  we  have  nothing  wherewith  to  fight 
them.  So  the  English  lie  close  to  the  wind.  They  will  let 
them  pass,  and  return  to  their  old  tactic  of  following  and 
harassing. 

"  Good-bye  to  Seymour,"  says  Gary,  "if  he  is  caught  between 
them  and  Parma's  flotilla.  They  are  going  to  Dunkirk." 

"  Impossible  !  They  will  not  have  water  enough  to  reach 
his  light  craft.  Here  comes  a  big  ship  right  upon  us  !  Give 
him  all  you  have  left,  lads ;  and  if  he  will  fight  us,  lay  him 
alongside,  and  die  boarding." 

They  gave  him  what  they  had,  and  hulled  him  with  every 
shot ;  but  his  huge  side  stood  silent  as  the  grave.  He  had  not 
wherewithal  to  return  the  compliment. 

"  As  I  live,  he  is  cutting  loose  the  foot  of  his  main  sail ! 
the  villain  means  to  run." 

"There  go  the  rest  of  them  !  Victoria!"  shouted  Gary,  as 
one  after  another,  every  Spaniard  set  all  the  sail  he  could. 

There  was  silence  for  a  few  minutes  throughout  the  English 
fleet ;  and  then  cheer  upon  cheer  of  triumph  rent  the  skies.  It 
was  over.  The  Spaniard  had  refused  battle,  and  thinking  only 
of  safety,  was  pressing  downward  toward  the  Straits  again. 


Till'.  GREAT  ARMADA.  [CHAP.  xxxi. 

The  Invincible  Armada  had  cost  away  its  name,  and  England 
was  saved. 

••  I lut  lie  will  never  get  there,  sir,"  said  old  Yeo,  who  had 
come  u|M)ii  deck  to  murmur  his  Nunc  Domine,  and  gaze  upon 
thut  siirht  l>eyond  all  human  faith  or  hope:  "Never,  never  will 
he  weather  the  Flanders  shore,  against  such  a  breeze  as  is  coming 
up.  Look  to  the  eye  of  the  wind,  sir,  and  see  how  the  Lord  is 
fighting  tor  His  people!" 

Yes,  down  it  came,  fresher  and  stiffer  every  minute  out  of 
the  grey  north-west,  as  it  does  so  often  after  a  thunder  M'>nn  ; 
and  the  sea  began  to  rise  high  and  white  under  the  "  Claro  Aqui 
lone,"  till  the  Spaniards  were  fain  to  take  in  all  spare  canvas, 
and  lie-to  as  best  they  could ;  while  the  English  fleet,  lying-to 
also,  awaited  an  event  which  was  in  God's  hands  and  not  in 
theirs. 

"  They  will  be  all  ashore  on  Zealand  Ijefore  the  afternoon," 
murmured  Ainyas ;  "and  I  have  lost  my  labour!  Oh,  fm 
powder,  powder,  powder  !  to  go  in  and  finish  it  at  once  ! " 

"  Oh,  sir,"  said  Yeo,  "  don't  murmur  against  the  Lord  in 
the  very  day  of  His  mercies.  It  is  hard,  to  be  sure ;  but  1 1  is 
will  be  done." 

"  Could  we  not  borrow  powder  from  Drake  there  ?" 

"  Look  at  the  sea,  sir  !" 

And,  indeed,  the  sea  was  far  too  rough  for  any  such  attempt. 
The  Spaniards  neared  and  neared  the  fatal  dunes,  which  fringed 
the  shore  for  many  a  dreary  mile  ;  and  Amyas  had  to  wait 
weary  hours,  growling  like  a  dog  who  has  had  the  bone  snatched 
out  of  his  mouth,  till  the  day  wore  on ;  when,  behold,  the  wind 
began  to  fall  as  rapidly  as  it  had  risen.  A  savage  joy  rose  in 
Amyas's  heart. 

"  They  are  safe !  safe  for  us  !  Who  will  go  and  beg  tis 
powder  1  A  cartridge  here  and  a  cartridge  there  1 — anything 
to  set  to  work  again  !" 

Gary  volunteered,  and  returned  in  a  couple  of  hours  with 
some  quantity :  but  he  was  on  board  again  only  just  in  time, 
for  the  south-wester  had  recovered  the  mastery  of  the  skies, 
and  Spaniards  and  English  were  moving  away ;  but  this  time 
northward.  Whither  now  1  To  Scotland  1  Amyas  knew  not, 
and  cared  not,  provided  he  was  in  the  company  of  Don  Guzman 
de  Soto. 

The  Armada  was  defeated,  and  England  saved.  But  such 
great  undertakings  seldom  end  in  one  grand  melodramatic 
explosion  of  fireworks,  through  which  the  devil  arises  in  full 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  THE  GREAT  ARMADA.  567 

roar  to  drag  Dr.  Faustus  for  ever  into  the  flaming  pit.  On 
the  contrary,  the  devil  stands  by  his  servants  to  the  last,  and 
tries  to  bring  off  his  shattered  forces  with  drums  beating  and 
colours  flying ;  and,  if  possible,  to  lull  his  enemies  into  supposing 
that  the  fight  is  ended,  long  before  it  really  is  half  over.  All 
which  the  good  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  knew  well,  and 
knew,  too,  that  Medina  had  one  last  card  to  play,  and  that  was 
the  filial  affection  of  that  dutiful  and  chivalrous  son,  James  of 
Scotland.  True,  he  had  promised  faith  to  Elizabeth  :  but  that 
was  no  reason  why  he  should  keep  it.  He  had  been  hankering 
and  dabbling  after  Spain  for  years  past,  for  its  absolutism  was 
dear  to  his  inmost  soul ;  and  Queen  Elizabeth  had  had  to  warn 
him,  scold  him,  call  him  a  liar,  for  so  doing ;  so  the  Armada 
might  still  find  shelter  and  provision  in  the  Firth  of  Forth. 
But  whether  Lord  Howard  knew  or  not,  Medina  did  not  know, 
that  Elizabeth  had  played  her  card  cunningly,  in  the  shape  of 
one  of  those  appeals  to  the  purse,  which,  to  James's  dying  day, 
overweighed  all  others  save  appeals  to  his  vanity.  "  The  title 
of  a  dukedom  in  England,  a  yearly  pension  of  £5000,  a  guard 
at  the  queen's  charge,  and  other  matters "  (probably  more 
hounds  and  deer),  had  steeled  the  heart  of  the  King  of  Scots, 
and  sealed  the  Firth  of  Forth.  Nevertheless,  as  I  say,  Lord 
Howard,  like  the  rest  of  Elizabeth's  heroes,  trusted  James  just 
as  much  as  James  trusted  others ;  and  therefore  thought  good 
to  escort  the  Armada  until  it  was  safely  past  the  domains  of 
that  most  chivalrous  and  truthful  Solomon.  But  on  the  4th  of 
August,  his  fears,  such  as  they  were,  were  laid  to  rest.  The 
Spaniards  left  the  Scottish  coast  and  sailed  away  for  Norway ; 
and  the  game  was  played  out,  and  the  end  was  come,  as  the  end 
of  such  matters  generally  comes,  by  gradual  decay,  petty  disaster, 
and  mistake;  till  the  snow-mountain,  instead  of  being  blown 
tragically  and  heroically  to  atoms,  melts  helplessly  and  pitiably 
away. 


568  HOW  AMY  AS  THREW  |.  HAP.  xxxn. 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

HOW  AMY  AS  THREW  HIS  SWORD  INTn  Till:  SKA. 

"  Full  fathom  deep  thy  father  lies  ; 

Of  his  bones  are  corals  made  ; 
Those  are  pearls  which  were  his  eyes  ; 

Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade, 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change 

Into  something  rich  and  strange  ; 
Fairies  hourly  ring  his  knell, 
Hark  !  I  hear  them.     Ding  dong  bell." 

The  Tempat. 

YES,  it  is  over ;  and  the  great  Armada  is  vanquished.  It  is 
lulled  for  awhile,  the  everlasting  war  which  is  in  heaven,  the 
battle  of  Iran  and  Turan,  of  the  children  of  light  and  of  dark- 
ness, of  Michael  and  his  angels  against  Satan  and  his  fiends ; 
the  battle  which  slowly  and  seldom,  once  in  the  course  of  many 
centuries,  culminates  and  ripens  into  a  day  of  judgment,  and 
becomes  palpable  and  incarnate;  no  longer  a  mere  spiritual 
fight,  but  one  of  flesh  and  blood,  wherein  simple  men  may 
choose  their  sides  without  mistake,  and  help  God's  cause  not 
merely  with  prayer  and  pen,  but  with  sharp  shot  and  cold  steel. 
A  day  of  judgment  has  come,  which  has  divided  the  light  fmin 
the  darkness,  and  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  and  tried  c.i<  h 
man's  work  by  the  fire ;  and,  behold,  the  devil's  work,  like  its 
maker,  is  proved  to  have  been,  as  always,  a  lie  and  a  sham,  and 
a  windy  boast,  a  bladder  which  collapses  at  the  merest  pin- 
prick. Byzantine  empires,  Spanish  Armadas,  triple -crowned 
Papacies,  Russian  Despotisms,  this  is  the  way  of  them,  and 
will  be  to  the  end  of  the  world.  One  brave  blow  at  the  big 
bullying  phantom,  and  it  vanishes  in  sulphur-stench  \  while  the 
children  of  Israel,  as  of  old,  see  the  Egyptians  dead  on  the  sea- 
shore,— they  scarce  know  how,  save  that  God  has  done  it, — 
and  sing  the  song  of  Moses  and  of  the  Lamb. 

And  now,  from  England  and  the  Netherlands,  from  Germany 
and  Geneva,  and  those  poor  Vaudois  shepherd-saints,  whose 
bones  for  generations  past 

"  Lie  scattered  on  the  Alpine  mountains  cold ;" 

to  be,  indeed,  the  seed  of  the  Church,  and  a  germ  of  new  lift, 
liberty,  and  civilisation,  even  in  these  very  days  returning  good 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  569 

for  evil  to  that  Piedmont  which  has  hunted  them  down  like  the 
partridges  on  the  mountains ; — from  all  of  Europe,  from  all  of 
mankind,  I  had  almost  said,  in  which  lay  the  seed  of  future 
virtue  and  greatness,  of  the  destinies  of  the  new-discovered 
world,  and  the  triumphs  of  the  coming  age  of  science,  arose  a 
shout  of  holy  joy,  such  as  the  world  had  not  heard  for  many  a 
weary  and  bloody  century;  a  shout  which  was  the  prophetic 
birth-paean  of  North  America,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  the 
Pacific  Islands,  of  free  commerce  and  free  colonisation  over  the 
whole  earth. 

"There  was  in  England,  by  the  commandment  of  her 
Majesty,"  says  Van  Meteran  ;  "  and  likewise  in  the  United  Pro- 
vinces, by  the  direction  of  the  States,  a  solemn  festival  day 
publicly  appointed,  wherein  all  persons  were  solemnly  enjoined 
to  resort  unto  ye  Church,  and  there  to  render  thanks  and  praises 
unto  God,  and  ye  preachers  were  commanded  to  exhort  ye  people 
thereunto.  The  aforesaid  solemnity  was  observed  upon  the  29th 
of  November  :  which  day  was  wholly  spent  in  fasting,  prayer, 
and  giving  of  thanks. 

"  Likewise  the  Queen's  Majesty  herself,  imitating  ye  ancient 
Romans,  rode  into  London  in  triumph,  in  regard  of  her  own  and 
her  subjects'  glorious  deliverance.  For  being  attended  upon 
very  solemnly  by  all  ye  principal  Estates  and  officers  of  her 
Realm,  she  was  carried  through  her  said  City  of  London  in  a 
triumphant  Chariot,  and  in  robes  of  triumph,  from  her  Palace 
unto  ye  said  Cathedral  Church  of  St.  Paul,  out  of  ye  which 
ye  Ensigns  and  Colours  of  ye  vanquished  Spaniards  hung  dis- 
played. And  all  ye  Citizens  of  London,  in  their  liveries,  stood 
on  either  side  ye  street,  by  their  several  Companies,  with  their 
ensigns  and  banners,  and  the  streets  were  hanged  on  both  sides 
with  blue  Cloth,  which,  together  with  ye  foresaid  banners, 
yielded  a  very  stately  and  gallant  prospect.  Her  Majestic  being 
entered  into  ye  Church  together  with  her  Clergy  and  Nobles, 
gave  thanks  unto  God,  and  caused  a  public  Sermon  to  be 
preached  before  her  at  Paul's  Cross  ;  wherein  none  other  argu- 
ment was  handled,  but  that  praise,  honour,  and  glory  might  be 
rendered  unto  God,  and  that  God's  Name  might  be  extolled  by 
thanksgiving.  And  with  her  own  princely  voice  she  most 
Christianly  exhorted  ye  people  to  do  ye  same;  whereunto 
y6  people,  with  a  loud  acclamation,  wished  her  a  most  long  and 
happy  life  to  ye  confusion  of  her  foes." 

Yes,  as  the  medals  struck  on  the  occasion  said,  "  It  came,  it 
saw,  and  it  fled ! "  And  whither  1  Away  and  northward,  like 


570  MOW   AMYAS  T11KKU  [OHAP.  XXXII. 

a  In-ill  ni'  I'li-htcned  deer,  past  the  Orkneys  and  Shetland*, 
catching  up  a  few  hapless  fishermen  as  guides ;  past  the  coast 
of  Norway,  there,  too,  refused  water  and  food  by  the  brave 
ndants  of  the  Vikings;  and  on  northward  ever  towards 
tlir  loiirly  Faroes,  and  the  everlasting  dawn  which  heralds 
round  the  Pulr  the  midnight  sun. 

Their  water  is  failing ;  the  cattle  must  go  overboard ;  and 
the  wild  northern  sea  echoes  to  the  shrieks  of  drowning  horses. 
They  must  homeward  at  least,  somehow,  each  as  best  he  can. 
Let  them  meet  again  at  Cape  Finisterre,  if  indeed  tiny  rv.  T 
meet.  Medina  Sidonia,  with  some  five  -  and  -  twenty  of  tin- 
soundest  and  best  victualled  ships,  will  lead  *he  way,  and  leave 
the  rest  to  their  fate.  He  is  soon  out  of  sight;  and  forty 
more,  the  only  remnant  of  that  mighty  host,  come  wandering 
wearily  behind,  hoping  to  make  the  south-west  coast  of  Ireland, 
and  have  help,  or,  at  least,  fresh  water  there,  from  their  fellow 
Romanists.  Alas  for  them  ! — 

"  Make  Thou  their  way  dark  and  slippery, 
And  follow  them  up  ever  with  Thy  storm." 

For  now  comes  up  from  the  Atlantic,  gale  on  gale ;  and  few  of 
that  hapless  remnant  reached  the  shores  of  Spain. 

And  where  are  Amyas  and  the  Vengeance  all  this  while  ? 

At  the  fifty-seventh  degree  of  latitude,  the  English  fleet, 
finding  themselves  growing  short  of  provision,  and  having  been 
long  since  out  of  powder  and  ball,  turn  southward  toward 
home,  "  thinking  it  best  to  leave  the  Spaniard  to  those  uncouth 
and  boisterous  northern  seas."  A  few  pinnaces  are  still  sent 
onward  to  watch  their  course  :  and  the  English  fleet,  caught  in 
the  same  storms  which  scattered  the  Spaniards,  "with  great 
danger  and  industry  reached  Harwich  port,  and  there  provide 
themselves  of  victuals  and  ammunition,"  in  case  the  Spaniards 
should  return ;  but  there  is  no  need  for  that  caution.  Parma, 
indeed,  who  cannot  believe  that  the  idol  at  Halle,  after  all  his 
compliments  to  it,  will  play  him  so  scurvy  a  trick,  will  watch  for 
weeks  on  Dunkirk  dunes,  hoping  against  hope  for  the  Armada's 
return,  casting  anchors,  and  spinning  rigging  to  repair  their  losses. 

"  But  lang  lang  may  his  ladies  sit, 

With  their  fans  intill  their  hand, 
Before  they  see  Sir  Patrick  Spens 
Come  sailing  to  the  laud." 

The  Armada  is  away  on  the  other  side  of  Scotland,  and 
Amyas  is  following  in  its  wake. 

For  when  the  Lord  High  Admiral  determined  to  return, 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  571 

Amyas  asked  leave  to  follow  the  Spaniard ;  and  asked,  too,  of 
Sir  John  Hawkins,  who  happened  to  be  at  hand,  such  ammuni- 
tion and  provision  as  could  be  afforded  him,  promising  to  repay 
the  same  like  an  honest  man,  out  of  his  plunder  if  he  lived, 
out  of  his  estate  if  he  died ;  lodging  for  that  purpose  bills  in 
the  hands  of  Sir  John,  who,  as  a  man  of  business,  took  them, 
and  put  them  in  his  pocket  among  the  thimbles,  string,  and 
tobacco ;  after  which  Amyas,  calling  his  men  together,  reminded 
them  once  more  of  the  story  of  the  Eose  of  Torridge  and  Don 
Guzman  de  Soto,  and  then  asked — 

"  Men  of  Bideford,  will  you  follow  me  ?  There  will  be 
plunder  for  those  who  love  plunder ;  revenge  for  those  who  love 
revenge  ;  and  for  all  of  us  (for  we  all  love  honour)  the  honour 
of  having  never  left  the  chase  as  long  as  there  was  a  Spanish 
flag  in  English  seas." 

And  every  soul  on  board  replied,  that  they  would  follow 
Sir  Amyas  Leigh  around  the  world. 

There  is  no  need  for  me  to  detail  every  incident  of  that 
long  and  weary  chase  ;  how  they  found  the  Sta.  Catharina, 
attacked  her,  and  had  to  sheer  off,  she  being  rescued  by  the 
rest ;  how  when  Medina's  squadron  left  the  crippled  ships 
behind,  they  were  all  but  taken  or  sunk,  by  thrusting  into  the 
midst  of  the  Spanish  fleet  to  prevent  her  escaping  with  Medina ; 
how  they  crippled  her,  so  that  she  could  not  beat  to  windward 
out  into  the  ocean,  but  was  fain  to  run  south,  past  the  Orkneys, 
and  down  through  the  Minch,  between  Cape  Wrath  and  Lewis  ; 
how  the  younger  hands  were  ready  to  mutiny,  because  Amyas, 
in  his  stubborn  haste,  ran  past  two  or  three  noble  prizes  which 
were  all  but  disabled,  among  others  one  of  the  great  galliasses, 
and  the  two  great  Venetians,  La  Ratta  and  La  Belanzara — 
which  were  afterwards,  with  more  than  thirty  other  vessels, 
wrecked  on  the  west  coast  of  Ireland ;  how  he  got  fresh  water, 
in  spite  of  certain  "  Hebridean  Scots  "  of  Skye,  who,  after 
reviling  him  in  an  unknown  tongue,  fought  with  him  awhile, 
and  then  embraced  him  and  his  men  with  howls  of  affection, 
and  were  not  much  more  decently  clad,  nor  more  civilised,  than 
his  old  friends  of  California ;  how  he  pacified  his  men  by  letting 
them  pick  the  bones  of  a  great  Venetian  which  was  going  on 
shore  upon  Islay  (by  which  they  got  booty  enough  to  repay  them 
for  the  whole  voyage),  and  offended  them  again  by  refusing  to 
land  and  plunder  two  great  Spanish  wrecks  on  the  Mull  of 
Can  tire  (whose  crews,  by -the -by,  James  tried  to  smuggle  off 
secretly  into  Spain  in  ships  of  his  own,  wishing  to  play,  as 


572  HOW  AMYAS  THREW  [CHAP,  xxxii. 

usual,  both  sides  of  the  game  at  once  ;  but  the  Spaniards  were 
8t"|i|M'il  at  Yarmouth  till  the  council's  pleasure  was  known — 
which  was,  of  course,  to  let  the  poor  wretches  go  on  their  way, 
and  be  hanged  elsewhere) ;  how  they  passed  a  strange  island, 
half  black,  half  white,  which  the  wild  people  called  Raghary, 
but  Gary  christened  it  "  the  drowned  magpie  ; "  how  the  Sta. 
Catharina  was  near  lost  on  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  then  put  into 
Castleton  (where  the  Manx-men  slew  a  whole  boat's-crew  with 
their  arrows),  and  then  put  out  again,  when  Amyas  fought  with 
her  a  whole  day,  and  shot  away  her  mainyard;  how  the  Spaniard 
blundered  down  the  coast  of  Wales,  not  knowing  whither  he 
went ;  how  they  were  both  nearly  lost  on  Holyhead,  and  again 
on  Bardsey  Island ;  how  they  got  on  a  lee  shore  in  Cardigan 
Bay,  before  a  heavy  westerly  gale,  and  the  Sta.  Catharina 
ran  aground  on  Sara  David,  one  of  those  strange  subaqueous 
pebble-dykes  which  are  said  to  be  the  remnants  of  the  lost  land 
of  Gwalior,  destroyed  by  the  carelessness  of  Prince  Seithenin 
the  drunkard,  at  whose  name  each  loyal  Welshman  spits ;  how 
she  got  off  again  at  the  rising  of  the  tide,  and  fought  with 
Amyas  a  fourth  time ;  how  the  wind  changed,  and  she  got 
round  St.  David's  Head ; — these,  and  many  more  moving  inci- 
dents of  this  eventful  voyage,  I  must  pass  over  without  details, 
and  go  on  to  the  end ;  for  it  is  time  that  the  end  should  come. 

It  was  now  the  sixteenth  day  of  the  chase.  They  had  seen, 
the  evening  before,  St.  David's  Head,  and  then  the  Welsh  coast 
round  Milford  Haven,  looming  out  black  and  sharp  Ixifore  the 
blaze  of  the  inland  thunder-storm ;  and  it  had  lightened  all 
round  them  during  the  fore  part  of  the  night,  upon  a  light 
south-western  breeze. 

In  vain  they  had  strained  their  eyes  through  the  darkness, 
to  catch,  by  the  fitful  glare  of  the  flashes,  the  tall  masts  of  the 
Spaniard.  Of  one  thing  at  least  they  were  certain,  that  with 
the  wind  as  it  was,  she  could  not  have  gone  far  to  the  west- 
ward ;  and  to  attempt  to  pass  them  again,  and  go  northward, 
was  more  than  she  dare  do.  She  was  probably  lying-to  ahead 
of  them,  perhaps  between  them  and  the  land ;  and  when,  a 
little  after  midnight,  the  wind  chopped  up  to  the  west,  and 
blew  stiffly  till  day-break,  they  felt  sure  that,  unless  she  had 
attempted  the  desperate  expedient  of  running  past  them,  they 
had  her  safe  in  the  mouth  of  the  Bristol  Channel  Slowly  and 
wearily  broke  the  dawn,  on  such  a  day  as  often  follows  heavy 
thunder ;  a  sunless,  drizzly  day,  roofed  with  low  dingy  cloud, 
barred  and  netted,  and  festooned  with  black,  a  sign  that  the 


CHAP.  XXXII.  1  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  573 

storm  is  only  taking  breath  awhile  before  it  bursts  again ;  while 
all  the  narrow  horizon  is  dim  and  spongy  with  vapour  drifting 
before  a  chilly  breeze.  As  the  day  went  on,  the  breeze  died 
down,  and  the  sea  fell  to  a  long  glassy  foam-flecked  roll,  while 
overhead  brooded  the  inky  sky,  and  round  them  the  leaden  mist 
shut  out  alike  the  shore  and  the  chase. 

Amyas  paced  the  sloppy  deck  fretfully  and  fiercely.  He 
knew  that  the  Spaniard  could  not  escape  ;  but  he  cursed  every 
moment  which  lingered  between  him  and  that  one  great  revenge 
which  blackened  all  his  soul.  The  men  sate  sulkily  about  the 
deck,  and  whistled  for  a  wind ;  the  sails  flapped  idly  against 
the  masts ;  and  the  ship  rolled  in  the  long  troughs  of  the  sea, 
till  her  yard-arms  almost  dipped  right  and  left. 

"  Take  care  of  those  guns.  You  will  have  something  loose 
next,"  growled  Amyas. 

"  We  will  take  care  of  the  guns,  if  the  Lord  will  take  care 
of  the  wind,"  said  Yeo. 

"  We  shall  have  plenty  before  night,"  said  Gary,  "  and 
thunder  too." 

"So  much  the  better,"  said  Amyas.  "It  may  roar  till  it 
splits  the  heavens,  if  it  does  but  let  me  get  my  work  done." 

"  He's  not  far  off,  I  warrant,"  said  Gary.  "  One  lift  of  the 
cloud,  and  we  should  see  him." 

"  To  windward  of  us,  as  likely  as  not,"  said  Amyas.  "  The 
devil  fights  for  him,  I  believe.  To  have  been  on  his  heels 
sixteen  days,  and  not  sent  this  through  him  yet ! "  And  he 
shook  his  sword  impatiently. 

So  the  morning  wore  away,  without  a  sign  of  living  thing, 
not  even  a  passing  gull;  and  the  black  melancholy  of  the  heaven 
reflected  itself  in  the  black  melancholy  of  Amyas.  Was  he  to 
lose  his  prey  after  all  ?  The  thought  made  him  shudder  with 
rage  and  disappointment.  It  was  intolerable.  Anything  but 
that. 

"No,  God!"  he  cried,  "let  me  but  once  feel  this  in  his 
accursed  heart,  and  then — strike  me  dead,  if  Thou  wilt !" 

"  The  Lord  have  mercy  on  us,"  cried  John  Brimblecombe. 
"  What  have  you  said  ?" 

"What  is  that  to  you,  sir1?  There,  they  are  piping  to 
dinner.  Go  down.  I  shall  not  come." 

And  Jack  went  down,  and  talked  in  a  half-terrified  whisper 
of  Amyas's  ominous  words. 

All  thought  that  they  portended  some  bad  luck,  except  old 
Yeo. 


f>7 1  MOW  AMYAS  TIII:K\V  [OHAP.  xxxii. 

••  Well,  Sir  John,"  sai.l  IM-,  " and  why  not?  What  better 
•  -.in  tin-  !."!'!  do  I'm-  ;i  man,  tlian  lake  him  home  when  he  has 
don,-  hi*  work  {  Our  captain  is  wilful  and  spiteful,  and  must 
needs  kill  his  man  himself;  while  I'm-  me,  I  don't  care  how  tin- 
Don  goes,  provided  he  does  go.  I  owe  him  no  grudge,  nor  any 
man.  .May  the  Lord  give  him  re].eiitanee.  and  forgive  him  ail 
his  sins  :  but  if  I  could  but  see  him  once  safe  ashore,  as  he  may 
be  ere  nightfall,  on  the  Mortestone  or  the  back  of  Lundy,  I 
would  say,  '  Lord,  now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart  in 
peace,'  even  if  it  were  the  lightning  which  was  sent  to  f«-tch  im  ." 

M  But,  master  Yeo,  a  sudden  death  V 

"  And  why  not  a  sudden  death,  Sir  John  t  Even  fools  Ion;,' 
for  a  short  life  and  a  merry  one,  and  shall  not  the  Lord's  people 
pray  for  a  short  death  and  a  merry  one  ?  Let  it  come  as  it  will 
to  old  Yeo.  Hark  !  there's  the  captain's  voice  1" 

"Here  she  is!"  thundered  Amyas  from  the  deck;  and  in 
an  instant  all  were  scrambling  up  the  hatchway  as  fast  as  the 
frantic  rolling  of  the  ship  would  let  them. 

Yes.  There  she  was.  The  cloud  had  lifted  suddenly,  and 
to  the  south  a  ragged  bore  of  blue  sky  let  a  long  stream  of  sun- 
shine down  on  her  tall  masts  and  stately  hull,  as  she  lay  rolling 
some  four  or  five  miles  to  the  eastward :  but  as  for  land,  none 
was  to  be  seen. 

"  There  she  is ;  and  here  we  are,"  said  Gary ;  "  but  where 
is  here  ?  and  where  is  there  ?  How  is  the  tide,  master  ?" 

"  Running  up  Channel  by  this  time,  sir." 

"What  matters  the  tide?"  said  Amyas,  devouring  the  ship 
with  terrible  and  cold  blue  eyes.  " Can't  we  get  at  her?" 

"  Not  unless  some  one  jumps  out  and  shoves  behind,"  said 
Gary.  "  I  shall  down  again  and  finish  that  mackerel,  if  this 
roll  has  not  chucked  it  to  the  cockroaches  under  the  table." 

"  Don't  jest,  Will !  I  can't  stand  it,"  said  Amyas,  in  a  voice 
which  quivered  so  much  that  Gary  looked  at  him.  His  whole 
frame  was  trembling  like  an  aspen.  Gary  took  his  arm,  and 
drew  him  aside. 

"  Dear  old  lad,"  said  he,  as  they  leaned  over  the  bulwarks, 
"  what  is  this  ?  You  are  not  yourself,  and  have  not  been  these 
four  days." 

"No.  I  am  not  Amyas  Leigh.  I  am  my  brother's  avenger. 
Do  not  reason  with  me,  Will :  when  it  is  over  I  shall  be  merry 
old  Amyas  again,"  and  he  passed  his  hand  over  his  brow. 

"Do  you  believe,"  said  he,  after  a  moment,  "that  men  can 
be  possessed  by  devils?" 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  575 

"  The  Bible  says  so." 

"  If  my  cause  were  not  a  just  one,  I  should  fancy  I  had  a 
devil  in  me.  My  throat  and  heart  are  as  hot  as  the  pit.  Would 
to  God  it  were  done,  for  done  it  must  be !  Now  go." 

Gary  went  away  with  a  shudder.  As  he  passed  down  the 
hatchway  he  looked  back.  Amy  as  had  got  the  hone  out  of  his 
pocket,  and  was  whetting  away  again  at  his  sword-edge,  as  if 
there  was  some  dreadful  doom  on  him,  to  whet,  and  whet  for- 
ever. 

The  weary  day  wore  on.  The  strip  of  blue  sky  was  curtained 
over  again,  and  all  was  dismal  as  before,  though  it  grew  sultrier 
every  moment ;  and  now  and  then  a  distant  mutter  shook  the 
air  to  westward.  Nothing  could  be  done  to  lessen  the  dis- 
tance between  the  ships,  for  the  Vengeance  had  had  all  her  boats 
carried  away  but  one,  and  that  was  much  too  small  to  tow  her  : 
and  while  the  men  went  down  again  to  finish  dinner,  Amyas 
worked  on  at  his  sword,  looking  up- every  now  and  then  suddenly 
at  the  Spaniard,  as  if  to  satisfy  himself  that  it  was  not  a  vision 
which  had  vanished. 

About  two  Yeo  came  up  to  him. 

"  He  is  ours  safely  now,  sir.  The  tide  has  been  running  to 
the  eastward  for  this  two  hours." 

"  Safe  as  a  fox  in  a  trap.  Satan  himself  cannot  take  him 
from  us  !" 

"  But  God  may,"  said  Brimblecombe  simply. 

"Who  spoke  to  you,  sir?  If  I  thought  that  He — There 
comes  the  thunder  at  last ! " 

And  as  he  spoke  an  angry  growl  from  the  westward  heavens 
seemed  to  answer  his  wild  words,  and  rolled  and  loudened  nearer 
and  nearer,  till  right  over  their  heads  it  crashed  against  some 
cloud-cliff  far  above,  and  all  was  still. 

Each  man  looked  in  the  other's  face :  but  Amyas  was  un- 
moved. 

"The  storm  is  coming,"  said  he,  "and  the  wind  in  it.  It 
will  be  Eastward-ho  now,  for  once,  my  merry  men  all !" 

"Eastward-ho  never  brought  us  luck,"  said  Jack  in  an 
undertone  to  Gary.  But  by  this  time  all  eyes  were  turned  to 
the  north-west,  where  a  black  line  along  the  horizon  began  to 
define  the  boundary  of  sea  and  air,  till  now  all  dim  in  mist. 

"  There  comes  the  breeze." 

"And  there  the  storm,  too." 

And  with  that  strangely  accelerating  pace  which  some  storms 
seem  to  possess,  the  thunder,  which  had  been  growling  slow  and 


•~»7()  HOW  AMYAS  THREW  [riiAi-.  xxxn. 


seldom  far  away,  now  rang  i>cal  on  jx-'al  along  the  cloudy  floor 
above  their  heads. 

"Here  conies  the  breeze.  Round  with  the  yards,  or  we 
shall  be  taken  aback." 

The  yards  creaked  round  ;  the  see  grew  crisp  around  tlinn  ; 
the  hot  air  swept  their  cheeks,  tightened  every  rope,  filled  t-vn  -y 
sail,  bent  her  over.  A  cheer  burst  from  the  men  as  the  helm 
went  up,  and  they  staggered  away  before  the  wind,  right  down 
upon  the  Spaniard,  who  lay  still  becalmed. 

"There  is  more  behind,  Anayas,"  said  Gary.  "Shall  we 
not  shorten  sail  a  little  1  " 

"  No.  Hold  on  every  stitch,"  said  Amyas.  "  Give  me  the 
helm,  man.  Boatswain,  pipe  away  to  clear  for  fight." 

It  was  done,  and  in  ten  minutes  the  men  were  all  at 
quarters,  while  the  thunder  rolled  louder  and  louder  overhead, 
and  the  breeze  freshened  fast. 

"  The  dog  has  it  now.     There  he  goes  !  "  said  Gary. 

"  Right  before  the  wind.     He  has  no  liking  to  face  us." 

"  He  is  running  into  the  jaws  of  destruction,"  said  Yeo. 
"  An  hour  more  will  send  him  either  right  up  the  Channel,  or 
smack  on  shore  somewhere." 

"  There  !  he  has  put  his  helm  down.  I  wonder  if  he  sees 
land?" 

"  He  is  like  a  March  hare  beat  out  of  his  country,"  said 
Gary,  "  and  don't  know  whither  to  run  next" 

Gary  was  right.  In  ten  minutes  more  the  Spaniard  fell  off 
again,  and  went  away  dead  down  wind,  while  the  Vengeance 
gained  on  him  fast.  After  two  hours  more,  the  four  miles  had 
diminished  to  one,  while  the  lightning  flashed  nearer  and  nearer 
as  the  storm  came  up  ;  and  from  the  vast  mouth  of  a  black 
cloud-arch  poured  so  fierce  a  breeze  that  Amyas  yielded  un- 
willingly to  hints  which  were  growing  into  open  murmurs,  and 
bade  shorten  sail 

On  they  rushed  with  scarcely  lessened  speed,  the  black  arch 
following  fast,  curtained  by  one  flat  grey  sheet  of  pouring  rain, 
before  which  the  water  was  boiling  in  a  long  white  line  ;  while 
every  moment  behind  the  watery  veil,  a  keen  blue  spark  leapt 
down  into  the  sea,  or  darted  zigzag  through  the  rain. 

"  We  shall  have  it  now,  and  with  a  vengeance  ;  this  will 
try  your  tackle,  master,"  said  Gary. 

The  functionary  answered  with  a  shrug,  and  turned  up 
the  collar  of  his  rough  frock,  as  the  first  drops  flew  stinging 
round  his  ears.  Another  minute  and  the  squall  burst  full  upon 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  577 

them,  in  rain,  which  cut  like  hail — hail  which  lashed  the  sea 
into  froth,  and  wind  which  whirled  off  the  heads  of  the  surges, 
and  swept  the  waters  into  one  white  seething  waste.  And 
above  them,  and  behind  them,  and  before  them,  the  lightning 
leapt  and  ran,  dazzling  and  blinding,  while  the  deep  roar  of  the 
thunder  was  changed  to  sharp  ear-piercing  cracks. 

"  Get  the  arms  and  ammunition  under  cover,  and  then 
below  with  you  all,"  shouted  Amyas  from  the  helm. 

"And  heat  the  pokers  in  the  galley  fire,"  said  Yeo,  "to  be 
ready  if  the  rain  puts  our  linstocks  out.  I  hope  you'll  let  me 
stay  on  deck,  sir,  in  case " 

"I  must  have  some  one,  and  who  better  than  you?  Can 
you  see  the  chase  1 " 

No ;  she  was  wrapped  in  the  grey  whirlwind.  She  might 
be  within  half  a  mile  of  them,  for  aught  they  could  have  seen 
of  her. 

And  now  Amyas  and  his  old  liegeman  were  alone.  Neither 
spoke ;  each  knew  the  other's  thoughts,  and  knew  that  they 
were  his  own.  The  squall  blew  fiercer  and  fiercer,  the  rain 
poured  heavier  and  heavier.  Where  was  the  Spaniard  ? 

"  If  he  has  laid-to,  we  may  overshoot  him,  sir  ! " 

"  If  he  has  tried  to  lay-to,  he  will  not  have  a  sail  left  in  the 
bolt-ropes,  or  perhaps  a  mast  on  deck.  I  know  the  stiff-necked- 
ness  of  those  Spanish  tubs.  Hurrah  !  there  he  is,  right  on  our 
larboard  bow ! " 

There  she  was  indeed,  two  musket -shots'  off,  staggering 
away  with  canvas  split  and  flying. 

"He  has  been  trying  to  hull,  sir,  and  caught  a  buffet,"  said 
Yeo,  rubbing  his  hands.  "  What  shall  we  do  now  1 " 

"  Range  alongside,  if  it  blow  live  imps  and  witches,  and  try 
our  luck  once  more.  Pah  !  how  this  lightning  dazzles  ! " 

On  they  swept,  gaining  fast  on  the  Spaniard. 

"  Call  the  men  up,  and  to  quarters ;  the  rain  will  be  over  in 
ten  minutes." 

Yeo  ran  forward  to  the  gangway ;  and  sprang  back  again, 
with  a  face  white  and  wild — 

"Land  right  ahead!  Port  your  helm,  sir!  For  the  love 
of  God,  port  your  helm  ! " 

Amyas,  with  the  strength  of  a  bull,  jammed  the  helm  down, 
while  Yeo  shouted  to  the  men  below. 

She  swung  round.  The  masts  bent  like  whips ;  crack  went 
the  fore-sail  like  a  cannon.  What  matter  ?  Within  two  hun- 
dred yards  of  them  was  the  Spaniard ;  in  front  of  her,  and 

2P 


•r'7S  HOW  AMYAS  THREW  |. -HAI-.  xxxn. 

above  her,  a  huge  dark  hank  rose  through  the  dense  hail,  and 
miiitflnl  with  tin-  clinuls  ;  ami  at  its  foot,  plainer  every  moment 
pillars  and  spouts  of  leaping  foam. 

"What  is  it,  Morte?  Hartland?" 

It  might  be  anything  for  thirty  miles. 

"  Lundy  ! "  said  Yeo.  "  The  south  end  !  I  see  the  head  of 
the  Shutter  in  the  breakers !  Hard  a-port  yet,  and  get  her 
close-hauled  as  you  can,  and  the  Lord  may  have  mercy  on  us 
still !  Look  at  the  Spaniard  !" 

Yes,  look  at  the  Spaniard  ! 

On  their  left  hand,  as  they  broached-to,  the  wall  of  granite 
sloped  down  from  the  clouds  toward  an  isolated  peak  of  rock, 
some  two  hundred  feet  in  height.  Then  a  hundred  yards  of 
roaring  breaker  upon  a  sunken  shelf,  across  which  the  race  of 
the  tide  poured  like  a  cataract :  then,  amid  a  column  of  salt 
smoke,  the  Shutter,  like  a  huge  black  fang,  rose  waiting  for  its 
prey ;  and  between  the  Shutter  and  the  land,  the  great  galleon 
loomed  dimly  through  the  storm. 

He,  too,  had  seen  his  danger,  and  tried  to  broach-to.  But 
his  clumsy  mass  refused  to  obey  the  helm ;  he  struggled  a 
moment,  half  hid  in  foam ;  fell  away  again,  and  rushed  upon 
his  doom. 

"Lost !  lost !  lost !"  cried  Amyas  madly,  and  throwing  up 
his  hands,  let  go  the  tiller.  Yeo  caught  it  just  in  time. 

"  Sir !  sir !  What  are  you  at  ?  We  shall  clear  the  rock 
yet." 

"  Yes  !"  shouted  Amyas  in  his  frenzy  ;  "  but  he  will  not !" 

Another  minute.  The  galleon  gave  a  sudden  jar,  and 
stopped.  Then  one  long  heave  and  bound,  as  if  to  free  herself. 
And  then  her  bows  lighted  clean  upon  the  Shutter. 

An  awful  silence  fell  on  every  English  soul  They  heard 
not  the  roaring  of  wind  and  surge ;  they  saw  not  the  blinding 
flashes  of  the  lightning ;  but  they  heard  one  long  ear-piercing 
wail  to  every  saint  in  heaven  rise  from  five  hundred  human 
throats;  they  saw  the  mighty  ship  heel  over  from  the  wind, 
and  sweep  headlong  down  the  cataract  of  the  race,  plunging  her 
yards  into  the  foam,  and  showing  her  whole  black  side  even  to 
her  keel,  till  she  rolled  clean  over,  and  vanished  for  ever  and 
ever. 

"  Shame  ! "  cried  Amyas,  hurling  his  sword  far  into  the  sea, 
"  to  lose  my  right,  my  right !  when  it  was  in  my  very  grasp ! 
Unmerciful!" 

A  crack  which  rent  the  sky,  and  made  the  granite  ring  and 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  579 

quiver;  a  bright  world  of  flame,  and  then  a  blank  of  utter 
darkness,  against  which  stood  out,  glowing  red-hot,  every  mast, 
and  sail,  and- rock,  and  Salvation  Yeo  as  he  stood  just  in  front 
of  Amyas,  the  tiller  in  his  hand.  All  red-hot,  transfigured 
into  fire ;  and  behind,  the  black,  black  night. 

A  whisper,  a  rustling  close  beside  him,  and  Brimblecombe's 
voice  said  softly, — 

"Give  him  more  wine,  Will;  his  eyes  are  opening." 

"  Hey  day  ?"  said  Amyas  faintly,  "  not  past  the  Shutter 
yet !  How  long  she  hangs  in  the  wind  !" 

"  We  are  long  past  the  Shutter,  Sir  Amyas,"  said  Brimble- 
combe. 

"Are  you  mad1?     Cannot  I  trust  my  own  eyes?" 

There  was  no  answer  for  awhile. 

"  We  are  past  the  Shutter,  indeed,"  said  Gary  very  gently, 
"and  lying  in  the  cove  at  Lundy." 

"Will  you  tell  me  that  that  is  not  the  Shutter,  and  that 
the  Devil's-limekiln,  and  that  the  cliif — that  villain  Spaniard 
only  gone — and  that  Yeo  is  not  standing  here  by  me,  and  Gary 
there  forward,  and — why,  by  -  the  -  by,  where  are  you,  Jack 
Brimblecombe,  who  were  talking  to  me  this  minute  V 

"  Oh,  Sir  Amyas  Leigh,  dear  Sir  Amyas  Leigh,"  blubbered 
poor  Jack,  "  put  out  your  hand,  and  feel  where  you  are,  and 
pray  the  Lord  to  forgive  you  for  your  wilfulness  ! " 

A  great  trembling  fell  upon  Amyas  Leigh  ;  half  fearfully  he 
put  out  his  hand ;  he  felt  that  he  was  in  his  hammock,  with 
the  deck  beams  close  above  his  head.  The  vision  which  had 
been  left  upon  his  eye-balls  vanished  like  a  dream. 

"  What  is  this  ?  I  must  be  asleep  1  What  has  happened  ? 
Where  am  I V 

"  In  your  cabin,  Amyas,"  said  Gary. 

"  What  ?     And  where  is  Yeo  ?" 

"  Yeo  is  gone  where  he  longed  to  go,  and  as  he  longed  to 
go.  The  same  flash  which  struck  you  down,  struck  him  dead.' 

"  Dead  ?  Lightning  ?  Any  more  hurt  1  I  must  go  and 
see.  Why,  what  is  this  1"  and  Amyas  passed  his  hand  across 
his  eyes.  "It  is  all  dark — dark,  as  I  live  !"  And  he  passed 
his  hand  over  his  eyes  again. 

There  was  another  dead  silence.     Amyas  broke  it. 

"Oh,  God!"  shrieked  the  great  proud  sea-captain,  "Oh, 
God,  I  am  blind!  blind!  blind!"  And  writhing  in  his  great 
horror,  he  called  to  Gary  to  kill  him  and  put  him  out  of  his 


580  HOW  AMY  AS  TIIKKW  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

misery,  and  then  wailed  for  his  mother  to  come  and  help  him, 
a-;  it'  he  had  Keen  a  I  my  mice  nmrc ;  while  Briinblecombe  and 
Cary,  and  the  sailors  who  crowded  round  the  cabin-door,  wept 
as  if  they  too  had  been  boys  once  more. 

Soon  his  tit  of  frenzy  passed  off,  and  he  sank  back  ex- 
hausted. 

They  lifted  him  into  their  remaining  bout,  rowed  him 
ashore,  carried  him  painfully  up  the  hill  to  the  old  castle,  and 
Mimic  a  bed  for  him  on  the  floor,  in  the  very  nmm  in  which  Don 
<!u/inan  and  Rose  Salterne  had  plighted  their  troth  to  each 
other,  five  wild  years  before. 

Three  miserable  days  were  passed  within  that  lonely  tower. 
Amyas,  utterly  unnerved  by  the  horror  of  his  misfortune,  and 
by  the  over-excitement  of  the  last  few  weeks,  was  incessantly 
delirious ;  while  Gary,  and  Brimblecombe,  and  the  men,  nursed 
him  by  turns,  as  sailors  and  wives  only  can  nurse ;  and  listened 
with  awe  to  his  piteous  self-reproaches  and  entreaties  to  Heaven 
to  remove  that  woe,  which,  as  he  shrieked  again  and  again,  was 
a  just  judgment  on  him  for  his  wilfulness  and  ferocity.  The 
surgeon  talked,  of  course,  learnedly  about  melancholic  humours, 
and  his  liver's  being  "  adust  by  the  over-pungency  of  the  animal 
spirits,"  and  then  fell  back  on  the  universal  panacea  of  blood- 
letting, which  he  effected  with  fear  and  trembling  during  a 
short  interval  of  prostration ;  encouraged  by  which  he  attempted 
to  administer  a  large  bolus  of  aloes,  was  knocked  down  for  his 
pains,  and  then  thought  it  better  to  leave  Nature  to  her  own 
work.  In  the  meanwhile,  Cary  had  sent  off  one  of  the  island 
skiffs  to  Clovelly,  with  letters  to  his  father,  and  to  Mrs.  Leigh, 
entreating  the  latter  to  come  off  to  the  island  :  but  the  heavy 
westerly  winds  made  that  as  impossible,  as  it  was  to  move 
Amyas  on  board,  and  the  men  had  to  do  their  best,  and  did  it 
well  enough. 

On  the  fourth  day  his  raving  ceased :  but  he  was  still  too 
weak  to  be  moved.  Toward  noon,  however,  he  called  for  food, 
ate  a  little,  and  seemed  revived. 

"Will,"  he  said,  after  awhile,  "this  room  is  as  stifling  as 
it  is  dark.  I  feel  as  if  I  should  be  a  sound  man  once  more  if 
I  could  but  get  one  snuff  of  the  sea-breeze." 

The  surgeon  shook  his  head  at  the  notion  of  moving  him  : 
but  Amyas  was  peremptory. 

"  I  am  captain  still,  Tom  Surgeon,  and  will  sail  for  the 
Indies,  if  I  choose.  Will  Cary,  Jack  Brimblecoinlu',  will  you 
obey  a  blind  general  1" 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  581 

"  What  you  will  in  reason,"  said  they  both  at  once. 

"Then  lead  me  out,  my  masters,  and  over  the  down  to 
the  south  end.  To  the  point  at  the  south  end  I  must  go ;  there 
is  no  other  place  will  suit." 

And  he  rose  firmly  to  his  feet,  and  held  out  his  hands  for 
theirs. 

"  Let  him  have  his  humour,"  whispered  Gary.  "  It  may  be 
the  working  off  of  his  madness." 

"This  sudden  strength  is  a  note  of  fresh  fever,  Mr.  Lieu- 
tenant," said  the  surgeon,  "  and  the  rules  of  the  art  prescribe 
rather  a  fresh  blood-letting." 

Amyas  overheard  the  last  word,  and  broke  out, — 

"  Thou  pig-sticking  Philistine,  wilt  thou  make  sport  with 
blind  Samson  1  Come  near  me  to  let  blood  from  my  arm,  and 
see  if  I  do  not  let  blood  from  thy  coxcomb.  Catch  him,  Will, 
and  bring  him  me  here  !" 

The  surgeon  vanished  as  the  blind  giant  made  a  step 
forward ;  and  they  set  forth,  Amyas  walking  slowly,  but  firmly, 
between  his  two  friends. 

"  Whither  ?"  asked  Cary. 

"  To  the  south  end.  The  crag  above  the  Devil's-limekiln. 
No  other  place  will  suit." 

Jack  gave  a  murmur,  and  half-stopped,  as  a  frightful  sus- 
picion crossed  him. 

"  That  is  a  dangerous  place  !" 

"  What  of  that  ?"  said  Amyas,  who  caught  his  meaning  in 
his  tone.  "Dost  think  I  am  going  to  leap  over  cliff?  I  have 
not  heart  enough  for  that.  On,  lads,  and  set  me  safe  among 
the  rocks." 

So  slowly,  and  painfully,  they  went  on,  while  Amyas  mur- 
mured to  himself, — 

"No,  no  other  place  will  suit;  I  can  see  all  thence." 

So  on  they  went  to  the  point,  where  the  cyclopean  wall  of 
granite  cliff  which  forms  the  western  side  of  Lundy,  ends  sheer 
in  a  precipice  of  some  three  hundred  feet,  topped  by  a  pile  of 
snow-white  rock,  bespangled  with  golden  lichens.  As  they 
approached,  a  raven,  who  sat  upon  the  topmost  stone,  black 
against  the  bright  blue  sky,  flapped  lazily  away,  and  sank  down 
the  abysses  of  the  cliff,  as  if  he  scented  the  corpses  underneath 
the  surge.  Below  them  from  the  Gull-rock  rose  a  thousand 
birds,  and  filled  the  air  with  sound ;  the  choughs  cackled,  the 
hacklets  wailed,  the  great  blackbacks  laughed  querulous  defiance 
at  the  intruders,  and  a  single  falcon,  with  an  angry  bark,  dashed 


.r>S-J  H.  iW  AHYAS  TIIKKW  [,  HAI-.  xxxii. 

nut  from  beneath  tlicir  feet,  ami  hung  jM.isrd  high  aloft,  watch- 
ing the  sea-fowl  which  swung  slowly  nmnil  and  round  Jn-l<>w. 

It  was  a  glorious  sight  upon  a  glorious  day.  To  the  north- 
ward the  k'lt'iis  rushed  down  toward  the  cliff,  crowned  with  grey 
crags,  and  carpeted  •with  purple  heather  and  green  fern ;  and 
from  their  feet  stretched  away  to  the  westward  the  sapphire 
rollers  of  the  vast  Atlantic,  crowned  with  a  thousand  crests  of 
flying  foam.  On  their  left  hand,  some  ten  miles  to  the  south, 
stood  out  against  the  sky  the  purple  wall  of  Hartland  cliffs, 
sinking  lower  and  lower  as  they  trended  away  to  the  southward 
along  the  lonely  ironbound  shores  of  Cornwall,  until  they  faded, 
dim  and  blue,  into  the  blue  horizon  forty  miles  away. 

The  sky  was  flecked  with  clouds,  which  rushed  toward 
them  fast  upon  the  roaring  south-west  wind  ;  and  the  warm 
ocean -breeze  swept  up  the  clifls,  and  whistled  through  the 
heather-bells,  and  howled  in  cranny  and  in  crag. 

"  Till  the  pillars  and  clefts  of  the  granite 
Rang  like  a  God-swept  lyre  ; " 

while  Amyas,  a  proud  smile  upon  his  lips,  stood  breasting  that 
genial  stream  of  airy  wine  with  swelling  nostrils  and  fast-heav- 
ing chest,  and  seemed  to  drink  in  life  from  every  gust.  All 
three  were  silent  for  awhile ;  and  Jack  and  Gary,  gazing  down- 
ward with  delight  upon  the  glory  and  the  grandeur  of  the  sight, 
forgot  for  awhile  that  their  companion  saw  it  not.  Yet  when 
they  started  sadly,  and  looked  into  his  face,  did  he  not  see  it  ? 
So  wide  and  eager  were  his  eyes,  so  bright  and  calm  his  face,  that 
they  fancied  for  an  instant  that  he  was  once  more  even  as  they. 

A  deep  sigh  undeceived  them.  "  I  know  it  is  all  here — 
the  dear  old  sea,  where  I  would  live  and  die.  And  my  eyes 
feel  for  it ;  feel  for  it — and  cannot  find  it ;  never,  never  will 
find  it  again  for  ever !  God's  will  be  done  !" 

"  Do  you  say  that  V  asked  Brimblecombe  eagerly. 

"  Why  should  I  not  ?  Why  have  I  been  raving  in  hell-fire 
for  I  know  not  how  many  days,  but  to  find  out  that,  John 
Brimblecombe,  thou  better  man  than  II" 

"  Not  that  last :  but  Amen  !  Amen  !  and  the  Lord  has  in- 
deed had  mercy  upon  thee  !"  said  Jack,  through  his  honest  tears. 

"Amen!"  said  Amyas.  "Now  set  me  where  I  can  rest 
among  the  rocks  without  fear  of  falling — for  life  is  sweet  still, 
even  without  eyes,  friends — and  leave  me  to  myself  awhile." 

It  was  no  easy  matter  to  find  a  safe  place  ;  for  from  the  foot 
of  the  crag  the  heathery  turf  slopes  down  all  but  upright,  on 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  583 

one  side  to  a  cliff  which  overhangs  a  shoreless  cove  of  deep  dark 
sea,  and  on  the  other  to  an  abyss  even  more  hideous,  where  the 
solid  rock  has  sunk  away,  and  opened  inland  in  the  hillside  a 
smooth- walled  pit,  some  sixty  feet  square  and -some  hundred 
and  fifty  in  depth,  aptly  known  then  as  now,  as  the  Devil's- 
limekiln ;  the  mouth  of  which,  as  old  wives  say,  was  once  closed 
by  the  Shutter-rock  itself,  till  the  fiend  in  malice  hurled  it  into 
the  sea,  to  be  a  pest  to  mariners.  A  narrow  and  untrodden 
cavern  at  the  bottom  connects  it  with  the  outer  sea ;  they  could 
even  then  hear  the  mysterious  thunder  and  gurgle  of  the  surge 
in  the  subterranean  adit,  as  it  rolled  huge  boulders  to  and  fro 
in  darkness,  and  forced  before  it  gusts  of  pent-up  air.  It  was 
a  spot  to  curdle  weak  blood,  and  to  make  weak  heads  reel :  but 
all  the  fitter  on  that  account  for  Amyas  and  his  fancy. 

"You  can  sit  here  as  in  an  arm-chair,"  said  Gary,  helping 
him  down  to  one  of  those  square  natural  seats  so  common  in 
the  granite  tors. 

"  Good ;  now  turn  my  face  to  the  Shutter.  Be  sure  and 
exact.  So.  Do  I  face  it  full  ?" 

"  Full,"  said  Gary. 

"  Then  I  need  no  eyes  wherewith  to  see  what  is  before  me," 
said  he,  with  a  sad  smile.  "  I  know  every  stone  and  every 
headland,  and  every  wave  too,  I  may  say,  far  beyond  aught  that 
eye  can  reach.  Now  go,  and  leave  me  alone  with  God  and 
with  the  dead !" 

They  retired  a  little  space  and  watched  him.  He  never 
stirred  for  many  minutes  ;  then  leaned  his  elbows  on  his  knees, 
and  his  head  upon  his  hands,  and  so  was  still  again.  He  remained 
so  long  thus,  that  the  pair  became  anxious,  and  went  towards 
him.  He  was  asleep,  and  breathing  quick  and  heavily. 

"  He  will  take  a  fever,"  said  Brimblecombe,  "if  he  sleeps 
much  longer  with  his  head  down  in  the  sunshine." 

"  We  must  wake  him  gently,  if  we  wake  him  at  all."  And 
Gary  moved  forward  to  him. 

As  he  did  so,  Amyas  lifted  his  head,  and  turning  it  to  right 
and  left,  felt  round  him  with  his  sightless  eyes. 

"You  have  been  asleep,  Amyas." 

"  Have  1 1  I  have  not  slept  back  my  eyes,  then.  Take 
up  this  great  useless  carcase  of  mine,  and  lead  me  home.  I 
shall  buy  me  a  dog  when  I  get  to  Burrough,  I  think,  and  make 
him  tow  me  in  a  string,  eh  ?  So  !  Give  me  your  hand.  Now 
march  !'' 

His  guides  heard  with  surprise  this  new  cheerfulness. 


584  AMY  AS  THROWS  HIS  SWORD  INTO  THE  SEA.  [CHAP.  XXXII. 

"  Thank  God,  sir,  that  your  heart  is  so  light  already,"  said 
good  Jack  ;  "  it  makes  me  feel  quite  upraised  myself,  like." 

"I  have  reason  to  be  cheerful,  Sir  John;  I  have  li-ft  ;i 
heavy  load  behind  me.  I  have  been  wilful,  and  proud,  and  a 
blasphemer,  and  swollen  with  cruelty  and  pride ;  and  God  has 
brought  me  low  for  it,  and  cut  me  off  from  my  evil  delight. 
No  more  Spaniard-hunting  for  me  now,  my  masters.  God  will 
send  no  such  fools  as  I  upon  His  errands." 

"  You  do  not  repent  of  fighting  the  Spaniards." 

"  Not  I :  but  of  hating  even  the  worst  of  them.  Listen  to 
me,  Will  and  Jack.  If  that  man  wronged  me,  I  wronged  him 
likewise.  I  have  been  a  fiend  when  I  thought  myself  the 
grandest  of  men,  yea,  a  very  avenging  angel  out  of  heaven. 
But  God  has  shown  me  my  sin,  and  we  have  made  up  our 
quarrel  for  ever." 

"Made  it  up?" 

"  Made  it  up,  thank  God.  But  I  am  weary.  Set  me  down 
awhile,  and  I  will  tell  you  how  it  befell." 

Wondering,  they  set  him  down  upon  the  heather,  while  the 
bees  hummed  round  them  in  the  sun;  and  Amyas  felt  for  a 
hand  of  each,  and  clasped  it  in  his  own  hand,  and  began, — 

"When  you  left  me  there  upon  the  rock,  lads,  I  looked 
away  and  out  .to  sea,  to  get  one  last  snuff  of  the  merry  sea- 
breeze,  which  will  never  sail  me  again.  And  as  I  looked,  I  tell 
you  truth,  I  could  see  the  water  and  the  sky ;  as  plain  as  ever 
I  saw  them,  till  I  thought  my  sight  was  come  again.  But  soon 
I  knew  it  was  not  so ;  for  I  saw  more  than  man  could  see ; 
right  over  the  ocean,  as  I  live,  and  away  to  the  Spanish  Main. 
And  I  saw  Barbados,  and  Grenada,  and  all  the  isles  that  we 
ever  sailed  by;  and  La  Guayra  in  Carraccas,  and  the  Silla,  and 
the  house  beneath  it  where  she  lived.  And  I  saw  him  walking 
with  her  on  the  barbecu,  and  he  loved  her  then.  I  saw  what 
I  saw ;  and  he  loved  her ;  and  I  say  he  loves  her  still. 

"  Then  I  saw  the  cliffs  beneath  me,  and  the  Gull-rock,  and 
the  Shutter,  and  the  Ledge;  I  saw  them,  William  Gary,  and 
the  weeds  beneath  the  merry  blue  sea.  And  I  saw  the  grand 
old  galleon,  Will;  she  has  righted  with  the  sweeping  of  the 
tide.  She  lies  in  fifteen  fathoms,  at  the  edge  of  the  rocks,  upon 
the  sand ;  and  her  men  are  all  lying  around  her,  asleep  until 
the  judgment-day." 

Gary  and  Jack  looked  at  him,  and  then  at  each  other.  His 
eyes  were  clear,  and  bright,  and  full  of  meaning ;  and  yet  they 
knew  that  he  was  blind.  His  voice  was  shaping  itself  into  a 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]    HOW  AMYAS  LET  THE  APPLE  FALL.  585 

song.  Was  he  inspired  ?  Insane  ?  What  was  it  1  And  they 
listened  with  awe-struck  faces,  as  the  giant  pointed  down  into 
the  blue  depths  far  below,  and  went  on. 

"  And  I  saw  him  sitting  in  his  cabin,  like  a  valiant  gentle- 
man of  Spain ;  and  his  officers  were  sitting  round  him,  with 
their  swords  upon  the  table  at  the  wine.  And  the  prawns  and 
the  crayfish  and  the  rockling,  they  swam  in  and  out  above  their 
heads :  but  Don  Guzman  he  never  heeded,  but  sat  still,  and 
drank  his  wine.  Then  he  took  a  locket  from  his  bosom ;  and 
I  heard  him  speak,  Will,  and  he  said :  '  Here's  the  picture  of 
my  fair  and  true  lady;  drink  to  her,  Seiiors  all.'  Then  he  spoke 
to  me,  Will,  and  called  me,  right  up  through  the  oar-weed  and 
the  sea  :  '  We  have  had  a  fair  quarrel,  Sefior ;  it  is  time  to  be 
friends  once  more.  My  wife  and  your  brother  have  forgiven 
me ;  so  your  honour  takes  no  stain.'  And  I  answered,  'We  are 
friends,  Don  Guzman;  God  has  judged  our  quarrel,  and  not  we.' 
Then  he  said,  'I  sinned,  and  I  am  punished.'  And  I  said,  'And, 
Sefior,  so  am  I.'  Then  he  held  out  his  hand  to  me,  Gary;  and 
I  stooped  to  take  it,  and  awoke." 

He  ceased :  and  they  looked  in  his  face  again.  It  was  ex- 
hausted, but  clear  and  gentle,  like  the  face  of  a  new-born  babe. 
Gradually  his  head  dropped  upon  his  breast  again;  he  was  either 
swooning  or  sleeping,  and  they  had  much  ado  to  get  him  home. 
There  he  lay  for  eight  and  forty  hours,  in  a  quiet  doze ;  then 
arose  suddenly,  called  for  food,  ate  heartily,  and  seemed,  saving 
his  eyesight,  as  whole  and  sound  as  ever.  The  surgeon  bade 
them  get  him  home  to  Northam  as  soon  as  possible,  and  he  was 
willing  enough  to  go.  So  the  next  day  the  Vengeance  sailed, 
leaving  behind  a  dozen  men  to  seize  and  keep  in  the  queen's 
name  any  goods  which  should  be  washed  up  from  the  wreck. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

HOW    AMYAS    LET    THE    APPLE    FALL. 

"  Would  you  hear  a  Spanish  lady, 

How  she  woo'd  an  Englishman  ? 

Garments  gay  and  rich  as  may  be, 

Deck'd  with  jewels  had  she  on." 

Elizabethan  Ballad. 

IT  was  the  first  of  October.      The  morning  was  bright  and  still ; 
the  skies  were  dappled  modestly  from  east  to  west  with  soft 


•r>st',  HOW  AMY  AS  [CHAP,  xxxiii. 

grey  autumn  cloud,  as  if  all  heaven  and  earth  were  restim; 
after  those  fearful  summer  months  of  battle  and  of  storm. 
Silently,  as  if  ashamed  and  sad,  the  Vengeance  slid  over  the 
bar,  and  passed  the  sleeping  sandhills  and  dropped  her  anchor 
off  Appledore,  with  her  flag  floating  half-mast  high  ;  for  the 
corpse  of  Salvation  Yeo  was  on  board. 

A  boat  pulled  off  from  the  ship,  and  away  to  the  western 
end  of  the  strand  ;  and  Gary  and  Brimblecombe  helped  out 
Amyas  Leigh,  and  led  him  slowly  up  the  hill  toward  his  home. 

The  crowd  clustered  round  him,  with  cheers  and  blessings, 
and  sobs  of  pity  from  kind-hearted  women ;  for  all  in  Appledore 
and  Bideford  knew  well  by  this  time  what  had  befallen  him. 

"  Spare  me,  my  good  friends,"  said  Amyas,  "  I  have  landed 
here  that  I  might  go  quietly  home,  without  passing  through  the 
town,  and  being  made  a  gazing-stock.  Think  not  of  me,  good 
folks,  nor  talk  of  me ;  but  come  behind  me  decently,  as  Cliri>- 
tian  men,  and  follow  to  the  grave  the  body  of  a  better  man 
than  I." 

And,  as  he  spoke,  another  boat  came  off,  and  in  it,  covered 
with  the  flag  of  England,  the  body  of  Salvation  Yeo. 

The  people  took  Amyas  at  his  word ;  and  a  man  was  sent 
on  to  Burrough,  to  tell  Mrs.  Leigh  that  her  son  was  coming. 
When  the  coffin  was  landed  and  lifted,  Amyas  and  his  friends 
took  their  places  behind  it  as  chief  mourners,  and  the  crew 
followed  in  order,  while  the  crowd  fell  in  behind  them,  and 
gathered  every  moment;  till  ere  they  were  half-way  to  Northam 
town,  the  funeral  train  might  number  full  five  hundred  souls. 

They  had  sent  over  by  a  fishing-skiff  the  day  before  to  bid 
the  sexton  dig  the  grave ;  and  when  they  came  into  the  church- 
yard, the  parson  stood  ready  waiting  at  the  gate. 

Mrs.  Leigh  stayed  quietly  at  home ;  for  she  had  no  heart 
to  face  the  crowd ;  and  though  her  heart  yearned  for  her  son, 
yet  she  was  well  content  (when  was  she  not  content  ?)  that  he 
should  do  honour  to  his  ancient  and  faithful  servant ;  so  she 
sat  down  in  the  bay-window,  with  Ayacanora  by  her  side ;  and 
when  the  tolling  of  the  bell  ceased,  she  opened  her  Prayer-book, 
and  began  to  read  the  Burial-service. 

"Ayacanora,"  she  said,  "  they  are  burying  old  Master  Yeo, 
who  loved  you,  and  sought  you  over  the  wide,  wide  world,  and 
saved  you  from  the  teeth  of  the  crocodile.  Are  you  not  sorry 
for  him,  child,  that  you  look  so  gay  to-day?" 

Ayacanora  blushed,  and  hung  down  her  head ;  she  was 
thinking  of  nothing,  poor  child,  but  Amyas. 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  LET  THE  APPLE  FALL.  587 

The  Burial-service  was  done  ;  the  blessing  said  ;  the  parson 
drew  back  :  but  the  people  lingered  and  crowded  round  to  look 
at  the  coffin,  while  Amyas  stood  still  at  the  head  of  the  grave. 
It  had  been  dug  by  his  command,  at  the  west  end  of  the  church, 
near  by  the  foot  of  the  tall  grey  wind-swept  tower,  which 
watches  for  a  beacon  far  and  wide  over  land  and  sea.  Perhaps 
the  old  man  might  like  to  look  at  the  sea,  and  see  the  ships 
come  out  and  in  across  the  bar,  and  hear  the  wind,  on  winter 
nights,  roar  through  the  belfry  far  above  his  head.  Why  not  ? 
It  was  but  a  fancy :  and  yet  Amyas  felt  that  he  too  should  like 
to  be  buried  in  such  a  place ;  so  Yeo  might  like  it  also. 

Still  the  crowd  lingered ;  and  looked  first  at  the  grave  and 
then  at  the  blind  giant  who  stood  over  it,  as  if  they  felt,  by 
instinct,  that  something  more  ought  to  come.  And  something 
more  did  come.  Amyas  drew  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  and 
waved  his  hand  majestically,  as  one  about  to  speak ;  while  the 
eyes  of  all  men  were  fastened  on  him. 

Twice  he  essayed  to  begin ;  and  twice  the  words  were 
choked  upon  his  lips  ;  and  then, — 

"  Good  people  all,  and  seamen,  among  whom  I  was  bred, 
and  to  whom  I  come  home  blind  this  day,  to  dwell  with  you 
till  death — Here  lieth  the  flower  and  pattern  of  all  bold  mari- 
ners ;  the  truest  of  friends,  and  the  most  terrible  of  foes ; 
unchangeable  of  purpose,  crafty  of  council,  and  swift  of  execu- 
tion ;  in  triumph  most  sober,  in  failure  (as  God  knows  I  have 
found  full  many  a  day)  of  endurance  beyond  mortal  man.  Who 
first  of  all  Britons  helped  to  humble  the  pride  of  the  Spaniard 
at  Eio  de  la  Hacha  and  Nombre,  and  first  of  all  sailed  upon 
those  South  Seas,  which  shall  be  hereafter,  by  God's  grace,  as 
free  to  English  keels  as  is  the  bay  outside.  Who  having  after- 
wards been  purged  from  his  youthful  sins  by  strange  afflictions 
and  torments  unspeakable,  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Popish 
enemy,  learned  therefrom,  my  masters,  to  fear  God,  and  to  fear 
nought  else ;  and  having  acquitted  himself  worthily  in  his  place 
and  calling  as  a  righteous  scourge  of  the  Spaniard,  and  a  faith- 
ful soldier  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  now  exalted  to  his 
reward,  as  Elijah  was  of  old,  in  a  chariot  of  fire  unto  heaven  : 
letting  fall,  I  trust  and  pray,  upon  you  who  are  left  behind  the 
mantle  of  his  valour  and  his  godliness,  that  so  these  shores  may 
never  be  without  brave  and  pious  mariners,  who  will  count 
their  lives  as  worthless  in  the  cause  of  their  Country,  their 
Bible,  and  their  Queen.  Amen." 

And  feeling  for  his  companions'  hands  he  walked  slowly 


588  HOW  AMY  AS  [CHAP,  xxxm. 

from  the  churchyard,  and  across  the  village  street,  and  up  the 
lane  to  Burrough  gates ;  while  the  crowd  made  way  for  him  in 
solemn  silence,  as  for  an  awful  being,  shut  up  alone  with  all 
his  strength,  valour,  and  fame,  in  the  dark  prison-house  of  his 
mysterious  doom. 

He  seemed  to  know  perfectly  when  they  had  readied  the 
gates,  opened  the  lock  with  his  own  hands,  and  went  boldly 
forward  along  the  gravel  path,  while  Gary  and  Briinblecombe 
followed  him  trembling ;  for  they  expected  some  violent  lnu.-t 
of  emotion,  either  from  him  or  his  mother,  and  the  two  good 
fellows'  tender  hearts  were  fluttering  like  a  girl's.  Up  to  the 
door  he  went,  as  if  he  had  seen  it ;  felt  for  the  entrance,  stood 
therein,  and  called  quietly  "  Mother  !" 

In  a  moment  his  mother  was  on  his  bosom. 

Neither  spoke  for  awhile.  She  sobbing  inwardly,  with  tear- 
less eyes,  he  standing  firm  and  cheerful,  with  his  great  arms 
clasped  around  her. 

"Mother!"  he  said  at  last,  "I  am  come  home,  you  see, 
because  I  needs  must  come.  Will  you  take  me  in,  and  look 
after  this  useless  carcase  1  I  shall  not  be  so  very  troublesome, 
mother, — shall  I V  and  he  looked  down,  and  smiled  upon  her, 
and  kissed  her  brow. 

She  answered  not  a  word,  but  passed  her  arm  gently  round 
his  waist,  and  led  him  in. 

"Take  care  of  your  head,  dear  child,  the  doors  are  low." 
And  they  went  in  together. 

"  Will !  Jack  !"  called  Amyas,  turning  round  :  but  the  two 
good  fellows  had  walked  briskly  off. 

"  I'm  glad  we  are  away,"  said  Gary ;  "  I  should  have  made 
a  baby  of  myself  in  another  minute,  watching  that  angel  of  a 
woman.  How  her  face  worked  and  how  she  kept  it  in  !" 

"  Ah,  well !"  said  Jack,  "  there  goes  a  brave  servant  of  the 
queen's  cut  off  before  his  work  was  a  quarter  done.  Heigho ! 
I  must  home  now,  and  see  my  old  father,  and  then 

"  And  then  home  with  me,"  said  Gary.  "  You  and  I  never 
part  again  !  We  have  pulled  in  the  same  boat  too  long,  Jack  ; 
and  you  must  not  go  spending  your  prize-money  in  riotous 
living.  I  must  see  after  you,  old  Jack  ashore,  or  we  shall 
have  you  treating  half  the  town  in  taverns  for  a  week  to 
come." 

"  Oh,  Mr.  Gary  !"  said  Jack,  scandalised. 

"  Come  home  with  me,  and  we'll  poison  the  parson,  and  my 
father  shall  give  you  the  rectory." 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  LET  THE  APPLE  FALL.  589 

"Oh,  Mr.  Gary!"  said  Jack. 

So  the  two  went  off  to  Clovelly  together  that  very  day. 

And  Amyas  was  sitting  all  alone.  His  mother  had  gone 
out  for  a  few  minutes  to  speak  to  the  seamen  who  had  brought 
up  Amyas's  luggage,  and  set  them  down  to  eat  and  drink ;  and 
Amyas  sat  in  the  old  bay-window,  where  he  had  sat  when  he 
was  a  little  tiny  boy,  and  read  King  Arthur,  and  Fox's  Martyrs, 
and  The  Cruelties  of  the  Spaniards.  He  put  out  his  hand  and 
felt  for  them ;  there  they  lay  side  by  side,  just  as  they  had  lain 
twenty  years  before.  The  window  was  open ;  and  a  cool  air 
brought  in  as  of  old  the  scents  of  the  four-season  roses,  and 
rosemary,  and  autumn  gilliflowers.  And  there  was  a  dish  of 
apples  on  the  table  :  he  knew  it  by  their  smell ;  the  very  same 
old  apples  which  he  used  to  gather  when  he  was  a  boy.  He 
put  out  his  hand,  and  took  them,  and  felt  them  over,  and 
played  with  them,  just  as  if  the  twenty  years  had  never  been : 
and  as  he  fingered  them,  the  whole  of  his  past  life  rose  up  before 
him,  as  in  that  strange  dream  which  is  said  to  flash  across  the 
imagination  of  a  drowning  man ;  and  he  saw  all  the  places  which 
he  had  ever  seen,  and  heard  all  the  words  which  had  ever  been 
spoken  to  him — till  he  came  to  that  fairy  island  on  the  Meta ; 
and  he  heard  the  roar  of  the  cataract  once  more,  and  saw  the 
green  tops  of  the  palm-trees  sleeping  in  the  sunlight  far  above 
the  spray,  and  stept  amid  the  smooth  palm-trunks  across  the 
flower-fringed  boulders,  and  leaped  down  to  the  gravel  beach 
beside  the  pool :  and  then  again  rose  from  the  fern-grown  rocks 
the  beautiful  vision  of  Ayacanora — Where  was  she  1  He  had 
not  thought  of  her  till  now.  How  he  had  wronged  her  !  Let 
be ;  he  had  been  punished,  and  the  account  was  squared.  Per- 
haps she  did  not  care  for  him  any  longer.  Who  would  care  for 
a  great  blind  ox  like  him,  who  must  be  fed  and  tended  like  a 
baby  for  the  rest  of  his  lazy  life  1  Tut !  How  long  his  mother 
was  away  !  And  he  began  playing  again  with  his  apples,  and 
thought  about  nothing  but  them,  and  his  climbs  with  Frank  in 
the  orchard  years  ago. 

At  last  one  of  them  slipt  through  his  fingers,  and  fell  on 
the  floor.  He  stooped  and  felt  for  it :  but  he  could  not  find  it. 
Vexatious  !  He  turned  hastily  to  search  in  another  direction, 
and  struck  his  head  sharply  against  the  table. 

Was  it  the  pain,  or  the  little  disappointment  1  or  was  it  the 
sense  of  his  blindness  brought  home  to  him  in  that  ludicrous 
commonplace  way,  and  for  that  very  reason  all  the  more  humi- 
liating ?  or  was  it  the  sudden  revulsion  of  overstrained  nerves, 


HOW  AMYAS  [CHAP.  XXTIII. 

produced  by  that  slight  shock  1  Or  had  he  "become  indeed  a 
chilil  once  more?  I  know  not;  but  so  it  was,  that  he  stain]"  <1 
on  the  floor  with  pettishness,  and  then  checking  himself,  burst 
into  a  violent  flood  of  tears. 

A  quick  rustle  passed  him ;  the  apple  was  replaced  in  liin 
hand,  and  Ayacanora's  voice  sobbed  out, — 

"There!  there  it  is!  Do  not  weep!  Oh,  do  not  weep! 
I  cannot  bear  it !  I  will  get  you  all  you  want !  Only  let  me 
fetch  and  carry  for  you,  tend  you,  feed  you,  lead  you,  like  your 
slave,  your  dog !  Say  that  I  may  be  your  slave  ! "  and  falling 
on  her  knees  at  his  feet,  she  seized  both  his  hands,  and  covered 
them  with  kisses. 

"  Yes  ! "  she  cried,  "  I  will  be  your  slave !  I  must  be  ! 
You  cannot  help  it !  You  cannot  escape  from  me  now !  You 
cannot  go  to  sea  !  You  cannot  turn  your  back  upon  wretched 
me.  I  have  you  safe  now !  Safe ! "  and  she  clutched  his  hands 
triumphantly.  "  Ah !  and  what  a  wretch  I  am,  to  rejoice  in 
that!  to  taunt  him  with  his  blindness!  Oh,  forgive  me!  I 
am  but  a  poor  wild  girl — a  wild  Indian  savage,  you  know  :  but 
— but "  and  she  burst  into  tears. 

A  great  spasm  shook  the  body  and  soul  of  Amyas  Leigh  ; 
he  sat  quite  silent  for  a  minute,  and  then  said  solemnly — 

"  And  is  this  still  possible  ?  Then  God  have  mercy  upon 
me  a  sinner ! " 

Ayacanora  looked  up  in  his  face  inquiringly :  but  before  she 
could  speak  again,  he  had  bent  down,  and  lifting  her  as  the 
lion  lifts  the  lamb,  pressed  her  to  his  bosom,  and  covered  her 
face  with  kisses. 

The  door  opened.  There  was  the  rustle  of  a  gown ;  Ayaca- 
nora sprang  from  him  with  a  little  cry,  and  stood,  half-trembling, 
half-defiant,  as  if  to  say — "  He  is  mine  now  ;  no  one  dare  part 
him  from  me !" 

"Who  is  it?"  asked  Amyas. 

"Your  mother." 

"  You  see  that  I  am  bringing  forth  fruits  meet  for  repent- 
ance, mother,"  said  he,  with  a  smile. 

He  heard  her  approach.  Then  a  kiss  and  a  sob  passed 
between  the  women ;  and  he  felt  Ayacanora  sink  once  more 
upon  his  bosom. 

"  Amyas,  my  son,"  said  the  silver  voice  of  Mrs.  Leigh,  low, 
dreamy,  like  the  far-off  chimes  of  angels'  bells  from  out  the 
highest  heaven ;  "  Fear  not  to  take  her  to  your  heart  again ; 
for  it  is  your  mother  who  has  laid  her  there." 


CHAP,  xxxin.]      LET  THE  APPLE  FALL,  591 

"It  is  true  after  all,"  said  Amyas  to  himself.  "What 
God  has  joined  together,  man  cannot  put  asunder." 

From  that  hour  Ayacanora's  power  of  song  returned  to  her ; 
and  day  by  day,  year  after  year,  her  voice  rose  up  within  that 
happy  home,  and  soared,  as  on  a  skylark's  wings,  into  the 
highest  heaven,  bearing  with  it  the  peaceful  thoughts  of  the 
blind  giant  back  to  the  Paradises  of  the  West,  in  the  wake  of 
the  heroes  who  from  that  time  forth  sailed  out  to  colonise 
another  and  a  vaster  England,  to  the  heaven -prospered  cry  of 
Westward-Ho  ! 


THE    END. 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  CLARK,  Edinburgh. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

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